The neural basis of sugar preference.

When it comes to food, one tempting substance is sugar. Although sweetness is detected by the tongue, the desire to consume sugar arises from the gut. Even when sweet taste is impaired, animals can distinguish sugars from non-nutritive sweeteners guided by sensory cues arising from the gut epithelium.

The preference for sugar over sweetener depends on a gut sensor cell.

Guided by gut sensory cues, humans and animals prefer nutritive sugars over non-caloric sweeteners, but how the gut steers such preferences remains unknown. In the intestine, neuropod cells synapse with vagal neurons to convey sugar stimuli to the brain within seconds. Here, we found that cholecystokinin (CCK)-labeled duodenal neuropod cells differentiate and transduce luminal stimuli from sweeteners and sugars to the vagus nerve using sweet taste receptors and sodium glucose transporters.

Neuropod Cells: The Emerging Biology of Gut-Brain Sensory Transduction.

Guided by sight, scent, texture, and taste, animals ingest food. Once ingested, it is up to the gut to make sense of the food's nutritional value. Classic sensory systems rely on neuroepithelial circuits to convert stimuli into signals that guide behavior.

Implementation of personalized music listening for assisted living residents with dementia.

Personalized music listening (PML) has been touted as a safe and inexpensive means of improving the quality of life, mood, and behavior of persons with dementia. A PML program was implemented in an assisted living facility and evaluated across the five dimensions of the RE-AIM framework: reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance. The first 17 residents invited to participate were enrolled and followed over eight months.