New perspectives on taste and primate evolution: the dichotomy in gustatory coding for perception of beneficent versus noxious substances as supported by correlations among human thresholds

American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Claude-Marcel HladikB Simmen

Abstract

In various environments where primates are presently observed, as well as in forests and savannas which have been inhabited by australopithecines and early hominids, there are (or there have been presumably) categories of substances eliciting taste signals associated with stereotyped responses. Such is the case for various soluble sugars of fruits and nectars, attracting consumers, and for several plant compounds in which bitter or strongly astringent properties have a repulsive effect. The occurrence of such classes of tasty substances among natural products appears to be related to the evolutionary trends that shaped primate sensory perception (for detecting either beneficent or potentially noxious substances) in the context of a long history of coevolution between animals and plants. Here, we present original psychophysical data on humans (412 individuals aged 17-59 years) as an analogy with which to test recent evidence from electrophysiology in nonhuman primates (Hellekant et al. [1997] J. Neurophysiol. 77:978-993; Danilova et al. [1998] Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 855:160-164) that taste fibers can be grouped into clusters of "best-responding fibers" with two more specific clusters, one for sugars and one for quinine and tannins...Continue Reading

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Citations

Apr 29, 2009·Journal of Chemical Ecology·Matthias LaskaLaura Teresa Hernandez Salazar
Jul 25, 2003·Comptes rendus biologies·Bruno Simmen, Stéphanie Charlot
Aug 9, 2008·Omics : a Journal of Integrative Biology·Bibiana Garcia-BailoAhmed El-Sohemy
Oct 13, 2004·The International Journal of Eating Disorders·Susana Sánchez, Carlos Castillo-Durán
Aug 1, 2014·Neuropsychologia·Léa GagnonMaurice Ptito
Jul 29, 2015·PloS One·Vernon ReynoldsBrittany Fallon
Apr 6, 2018·Journal of Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis·Yoonjin ShinYangha Kim
Oct 22, 2004·Molecular Biology and Evolution·Anne FischerSvante Pääbo
Apr 23, 2020·Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity·Yawen ZengJiazhen Yang
Dec 4, 2020·Appetite·Sara R JaegerThierry Worch

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