RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Temporal Signatures of Taste Quality Driven by Active Sensing JF The Journal of Neuroscience JO J. Neurosci. FD Society for Neuroscience SP 7398 OP 7411 DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0213-14.2014 VO 34 IS 22 A1 Dustin M. Graham A1 Chengsan Sun A1 David L. Hill YR 2014 UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/22/7398.abstract AB Animals actively acquire sensory information from the outside world, with rodents sniffing to smell and whisking to feel. Licking, a rapid motor sequence used for gustation, serves as the primary means of controlling stimulus access to taste receptors in the mouth. Using a novel taste-quality discrimination task in head-restrained mice, we measured and compared reaction times to four basic taste qualities (salt, sour, sweet, and bitter) and found that certain taste qualities are perceived inherently faster than others, driven by the precise biomechanics of licking and functional organization of the peripheral gustatory system. The minimum time required for accurate perception was strongly dependent on taste quality, ranging from the sensory-motor limits of a single lick (salt, ∼100 ms) to several sampling cycles (bitter, >500 ms). Further, disruption of sensory input from the anterior tongue significantly impaired the speed of perception of some taste qualities, with little effect on others. Overall, our results show that active sensing may play an important role in shaping the timing of taste-quality representations and perception in the gustatory system.