Brain’s taste secrets are uncovered

The brain has specialist neurons for each of the five taste categories — salty, bitter, sour, sweet and umami — US scientists have discovered. The study, published in the journal Nature, should settle years of debate on how the brain perceives taste. The Columbia University team showed the separate taste sensors on the tongue had a matching partner in the brain. The scientists hope the findings could be used to help reverse the loss of taste sensation in the elderly. It is a myth that you taste sweet only on the tip of the tongue. Each of the roughly 8,000 taste buds scattered over the tongue is capable of sensing the full suite of tastes. But specialised cells within the taste bud are tuned to either salty, bitter, sour, sweet or umami tastes.

Mouthwash to reduce oral cancer pain

A mouthwash made from herbal concoction, prescribed in ayurveda, helps in reducing the intensity of pain in patients undergoing radiation therapy for oral cancer. The mouthwash developed, clinically tested and patented by the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology also combats ulcers and infections. The director M Radhakrishna Pillai said: “The herbal mouthwash, by mitigating the toxicity associated with radiation therapy, could have a significant impact on improving the treatment continuity and cure rates for oral cancer. The mouthwash is a simple supernatant liquid obtained by dissolving in water equal quantities of powdered dried leaves, bark of neem, fruits of amla, yellow myrobalan, beleric myrobalan, and dried liquorice roots.”

Early school timings bad for teens

Early schooling hours could deprive teenagers of adequate sleep and hamper their academic performance, a study suggests. Although children require about nine hours of sleep throughout adolescence, older kids are naturally inclined to stay up later than younger ones, the study confirmed. “This is one of the few studies that has tracked sleep behaviour and circadian rhythms over the course of up to two-and-a-half years in the same adolescents,” said lead author Stephanie Crowley, assistant professor at the Rush University Medical Center, Chicago in the US. The negative effects of inadequate sleep among teenagers include poor academic performance, mood disturbances, depression, obesity, and even drowsy driving accidents among older teenagers.