140 



LLOYD M. BEIDLER 



that highly specific taste fibers are very few in number (see Fig. 2). In 

 fact, the resuUs are similar lo those obtained by recording single taste 

 cells. How information concerning taste quality is relayed to the higher 

 nervous centers will not be considered here since both Pfaff'mann, (1959, 

 1960) and Zotterman (1955 ; 1959) have studied this problem for many 

 years and published elsewhere. 



03N .1 H t M OIM 

 HCI KCi NoCI Qu 



03N IM IM OIM lOM 

 HCI KCI NoCI Qu. Sue. 



Fig. 2. Histograms summarizing frequency of neural response during first 

 second to five taste solutions in nine single chorda tympani nerve fiber pre- 

 parations in rat. Cross-hatched histogram superimposed on histogram for 

 single fiber E shows relative magnitude of summated response (indicated by 

 arbitrary units in parentheses) for same taste solution;;. (From Pfaff'mann, 



1955.) 



It should be remembered that the single taste fiber may reflect informa- 

 tion coming from sources other than taste cells ; namely, bare nerve 

 endings near the taste pore but between taste cells. This is particularly true 

 of responses to salts where discrepancies between response of single taste 

 cells and single taste fibers have been noted (Kimura and Beidler, 1961). 



What function can bare nerve endings play in responses to chemicals 

 and how specific are the responses to various stimuli ? This can be best 



