摘要
The taste of most fruits is characterized by a mixture of sensations termed sweet and sour by humans, and the food selection behavior of primates suggests that they may use the relative salience of sweetness and sourness to assess palatability of potential food items. Therefore, taste responses of six squirrel monkeys, five pigtail macaques, four olive baboons, and four spider monkeys to sweet–sour taste mixtures were assessed in two-bottle preference tests of brief duration (2 min). Monkeys were given the choice between a reference solution of 50 mM sucrose and mixtures containing 10, 30, or 50 mM citric acid plus 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, or 1000 mM sucrose. We found that the four species differed markedly in their acceptance of physiological concentrations of sour-tasting citric acid. Whereas olive baboons showed the highest degree of sour-taste tolerance and actually preferred most of the sweet–sour taste mixtures over sweet-tasting reference solutions, squirrel monkeys showed the lowest degree of sour-taste tolerance and rejected most of the sweet–sour taste mixtures even when they contained considerably more sucrose than the reference solutions. Additional tests demonstrated that the preference for sweet–sour taste mixtures was not based on masking effects. Rather, the animals perceived both the sweetness and the sourness of the taste mixtures and made a trade-off between the attractive and aversive properties of the two taste qualities. The results of this study suggest that the proximate reason for the marked differences in acceptance of sweet–sour taste mixtures are differences among species in the hedonic evaluation of the sour taste of citric acid. Possible ultimate reasons, which do not necessarily exclude, but may complement each other, include evolutionary adaptation to dietary specialization, avoidance of competition pressure, and phylogenetic relatedness.
摘要译文
大多数水果的味道的特征在于感觉的混合物称为糖醋人类，和灵长类动物的食物选择的行为表明，他们可能会使用甜味和酸味的相对突出，以评估潜在的食品的适口性。因此，六松鼠猴，五猪尾猕猴，四橄榄狒狒味觉反应，四蜘蛛猴甜酸适口混合物进行了评估简短的时间（2分钟）的双瓶偏好测试。猴子被给予的50mM蔗糖的基准溶液和含有10，30或50 mM柠檬酸加10，20，50，100，200，400，800，或1000毫蔗糖的混合物之间的选择。我们发现，四个品种在其接受生理浓度的酸味品尝柠檬酸的明显不同。而橄榄狒狒表现出最大程度的酸味，口感宽容，实际上最优先比甜味的参考解决方案甜酸适口的混合物，松鼠猴表现出酸味，味道宽容程度最低，并拒绝大部分甚至当它们含有比参考的解决方案相当多的蔗糖甜酸味的混合物。额外的测试表明，偏爱酸甜混合的味道不是基于掩蔽效应。相反，动物感知两个甜度和口感混合物的酸味，并提出了两味气质的吸引力和厌恶性之间进行权衡。书房表明近因原因在接受甜酸适口混合物的显着区别是物种的柠檬酸的酸味享乐评价之间的差异。可能最终的原因，这并不一定排斥，而是可以相互补充，包括进化适应竞争压力，饮食专业化，回避，和进化关联。
Matthias Laska [1] Heinz-Peter Scheuber [2] Laura Teresa Hernandez Salazar [3] Ernesto Rodriguez Luna [3]. Sour-Taste Tolerance in Four Species of Nonhuman Primates[J]. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 2003,29(12): 2637-2649