POSSIBILITY OF MAKING HYDRODYNAMIC OSCILLATOR – AS AN ARTIFICIAL TASTE SENSING DEVICE

Abstract

The mechanism leading to sensation of taste, which is so very essential for the maintenance of life, are very complex and little understood. Broadly speaking, it can be said that interaction of different chemicals, which may be called as taste stimuli, with taste receptors is converted into information of nerve impulses, which the brain receives to decipher the taste. It is, therefore, necessary to have an excitable oscillatory system on which the phenomenon of taste can be mimicked. In a recent study, it has been shown that the hydrodynamic oscillator is a good candidate for mimicking the sensing mechanism of taste. It was argued that the hydrodynamic oscillator could be viewed as an analogue of taste buds and the amplitude of electrical potential oscillations in the hydrodynamic oscillator, using a taste stimulant, as an analogue of the receptor potential. The amplitudes of the electrical potential oscillations in the hydrodynamic oscillator were shown to correlate well with the logarithms of the relatives taste indices (The intensitites of taste sensations within a particular taste category are measured by their relative taste indices), concentration, etc. of the substances belonging to different taste categories, and it appears that hydrodynamic oscillator can be used as possible artificial taste sensing device.