21/10/2016
Text: Luiz Paulo Juttel
Image: Leandro Menezes / FAPERN
ISD talks about the neuroscience of taste at FAPERN's National Science and Technology Week
O Santos Dumont Institute (ISD) participated in the opening of the National Science and Technology Week (SNCT) 2016, promoted by Rio Grande do Norte State Research Support Foundation (FAPERN). The Research Coordinator of the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience (IIN-ELS), Edgard Morya, gave the lecture: “Neuroscience of taste: from psychophysics to behavior”. Morya showed the audience the interactions between the nervous and digestive systems, with regard to taste during eating.
The topic of the lecture is closely related to the theme of this year’s SNCT, which is: Science feeding Brazil. Morya showed the audience, mostly composed of elementary school students, that we recognize the five flavors that humans perceive (bitter, sweet, sour, salty and umami) throughout the tongue. “You know that image from old textbooks that shows that the tongue identifies flavors in different regions, like sweet at the tip and sour at the back? That is no longer true for science,” said Morya.
The second lecture of the event was given by the researcher from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), Luiz Carlos Guilherme, and had as its theme: “Science Feeding Brazil: 1000 Little Systems and entrepreneurship as a tool to combat hunger and poverty”. The researcher addressed the theme of the method known as “Little System”, which helps small producers and their families to obtain sustenance and income according to the crops produced.
The opening table of the event also included the participation of the Secretary of Education and Culture of the State of Rio Grande do Norte (SEEC), Cláudia Santa Rosa, the directors of FAPERN, Uílame Umbelino Gomes (president), Laurence Bittencourt (scientific) and Júlio Rezende (innovation) and the coordinator of SNCT for FAPERN, Lucia Helena Goís.
