ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a review of some of the most relevant points and pointers related to extracellular recording of taste-responsive neurons in the brain stem of the rat. Although the focus is on the rat, most of what is discussed is relevant to other rodent species commonly used in taste research, such as the hamster, gerbil, or, most recently, mouse. In the interest of brevity, this chapter discusses only those points of the methodology for which the authors believe there is something to say apart from the standard recording procedures that might be used in extracellular single-cell recording. Thus, this chapter is far from encyclopedic in scope, and the authors apologize if any desirable details or references have been omitted. All in all, the purpose of this chapter is to discuss some issues about the relationship of methodology to the investigation of taste coding.
