The purpose of NEURAL MECHANISM in TASTE is to emphasize physiological principles and reveal new insights of this most recent research. This book is aimed to reach scientists within the broad area of neurophysiology as well as those in other disciplines who have interests in sensory mechanisms. The focus is on two major themes--peripheral mechanisms and neural processing at the central level. Every chapter is written by an expert on the subject matter, including definitive updates on the status of each topic. This work is not only useful to researchers in taste, but also to basic and applied scientists in related fields (such as food technology), doctoral and postdoctoral students.

Learning and memory functions as well as many neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, drug addiction and schizophrenia are caused by dysregulation of cell signaling mechanisms in the brain. This issue of Frontiers will provide evidence for signal transduction alterations implicated in cognitive and non cognitive behaviors, as investigated by means of pharmacological and genetic approaches. Specialists in the field will be invited to contribute articles covering the impact on behavior of manipulations of neurotransmitter systems, intracellular signaling cascades and gene expression.

Providing an essential brainstem relay for three cranial nerves, the NST coordinates highly complex sensory information. While other functions of the NST have received attention, its role in gustatory processing has received little. The first reference devoted exclusively to gustatory processing, The Role of the Nucleus of the Solitary Tract in Gus

This volume, containing papers given in memory of Robert Thompson, contains a representative sample of the major trends and issues current in the field of neural and cognitive psychology. Four sub-themes emerge: brain mechanisms in intelligence; brain mechanisms in memory and learning; mechanisms of neuronal adaptation; and brain mechanisms and motivation.