Mechanisms of Taste Transduction introduces a number of topics essential to a complete understanding of taste. These topics range from the control of food intake to the biophysical mechanisms of transduction and the design of food flavors in the food industry. The responses and organization of special sensory pathways are described in regard to their development, morphology, composition, electrophysiological and biochemical responses. Details are presented at several levels to appeal to researchers in molecular biology, membrane biophysics, human psychophysics, neuroanatomy, and chemistry. Current research is described in the context of what preceding studies have revealed, and the chapter authors are among today's most active and highly respected researchers in the field of chemical senses.

Written by world experts in the field of neuronal chemoreception, Methods in Chemosensory Research describes new molecular, electrophysiological, genetic, behavioral, psychophysical, and imaging techniques that have recently been adapted to investigate the basic neuronal mechanisms underlying chemoreception: taste, olfaction and chemical-induced irritation. This unique book includes a wide variety of new and innovative imaging methods, electrophysiological methods, methods to investigate development, and various aspects of behavioral testing.

Covering the entire spectrum of chemoreception, each section not only describes what information can be obtained by using each method, but also shows how to apply each method to obtain reliable results. The book presents a comprehensive view of how the brain uses information about chemical stimuli that interact with receptors in the nose and tongue. Methods in Chemosensory Research gives you the new tools to learn how chemicals affect activity from the genetic to the behavioral levels.

This book presents a comprehensive and coherent picture of how molecules diffuse across a liquid that is, on average, only two molecules thick. It begins by characterizing bilayers structurally, using X-ray diffraction, and then mechanically by measuring elastic moduli and mechanisms of failure. Emphasis is placed on the stability and mechanical properties of plant membranes that are subject to very large osmotic and thermal stresses. Using this information, the transport of molecules of increasing complexity across bilayers is analyzed.

Mechanisms of Taste Transduction introduces a number of topics essential to a complete understanding of taste. These topics range from the control of food intake to the biophysical mechanisms of transduction and the design of food flavors in the food industry. The responses and organization of special sensory pathways are described in regard to their development, morphology, composition, electrophysiological and biochemical responses. Details are presented at several levels to appeal to researchers in molecular biology, membrane biophysics, human psychophysics, neuroanatomy, and chemistry. Current research is described in the context of what preceding studies have revealed, and the chapter authors are among today's most active and highly respected researchers in the field of chemical senses.