Symposia/Workshop programme

 

Recent advances in taste processing and recognition

Synopsis

 

Organised by

Lucy Donaldson and Jan Melichar (University of Bristol, UK)

 

Location

TBC

 

0845

Welcome and Introduction Lucy Donaldson

0900

Stephen Roper (Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, USA)
Signal transduction and information processing in mammalian taste buds

0930

Susan Travers (The Ohio State University College of Dentistry, USA)
Neurophysiological and functional studies of the gustatory brainstem

1000

Annick Faurion (CNRS, NeuroBiologie Sensorielle, Paris, France)
Interactions between gustatory and somatosensory systems

1030

Coffee

1100

Lucy Donaldson/Jan Melichar (University of Bristol, UK)
Alteration of human taste in health and disease

1130

Edmund Rolls (University of Oxford, UK)
Neurophysiology and Functional Neuromaging of Taste Processing in the Brain

 

Synopsis

Taste research has made tremendous progress recently. It is now clear that taste, far from being static and fixed, is actually very plastic, altering how sensitive we are to different flavours and tastes very quickly. Many of the molecules that detect and transform tastes in the mouth into nervous system signals have been recently identified. Also, we understand better how a person's genetics may change which of these molecules are present and, therefore, how taste is transmitted. It is also clear that not only is there a great deal of variation between people in what they detect at taste buds, but also how these tastes are coded higher up in the brain. Our sense of taste can be more or less sensitive from moment to moment and this is shaped both by external, environmental changes and internal changes e.g. disease states. Taken together, these findings have helped us begin to understand how complex taste is. This symposium aims to bring together some of the key players in this rapidly evolving field - experts in taste bud transduction, signal processing and neuronal processing - to give an overview of how our understanding of this exciting field has developed.

 

Symposia Location Key

LT 1 Babbage Lecture Theatre (New Museums Site)
LT 2 Cockcroft Lecture Theatre (New Museums Site)
LT 3 Main Physiology Lecture Theatre (Downing Site)
LT 4 Main Anatomy Lecture Theatre (Downing Site)
LT 5 Biffin Lecture Theatre (Downing Site)
LT 6 Physiology Lecture Theatre 3 (Downing Site)
LT 7 Arts School Room B (New Museums Site)
LT 8 Arts School Room C (New Museums Site)