Taste profiles from single circumvallate papillae: comparison with fungiform profiles

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Abstract
Two experiments were conducted to investigate the psychophysical response characteristics of single circumvallate papillae. In Experiment 1, 12 circumvallate papillae in four subjects were chemically stimulated to assess identification of taste qualities. Single circumvallate papillae were found to mediate multiple taste qualities, and the taste profiles obtained from different papillae were similar within the same subject. Moreover, sucrose, quinine monohydrochloride and citric acid elicited unitary and characteristic quality responding in these papillae from all subjects, whereas NaCl elicited predominantly sour and/or bitter responses from three of the four subjects. Experiment 2 directly compared responses obtained from single circumvallate papillae with those obtained from fungiform regions of the tongue. Data for 10 subjects showed significantly greater sour responses to citric acid and NaCl in circumvallate papillae and significantly greater salty responses to these compounds on the anterior tongue. In addition, the taste profiles for citric acid and NaCl were distinct for circumvallate papillae, while those from the anterior tongue were similar. These data suggest that the bitterness and sweetness of quinine and sugar, respectively, can be identified on the basis of sensory information arising from either circumvallate or fungiform regions, but that differentiation of the tastes of salts and acids may depend on a comparison of the input from both regions and/or additional information arising from foliate regions.