Gustatory effects on intestinal motility of dogs

Trained, unanaesthetised dogs with jejunal fistula and adapted to 2 h meal-time showed transient taste-correlated changes in pressure (mm H2O) but not in frequency of intestinal motility. Intestinal pressure was increased on bitter taste both before meal-time (4.7 +/- 0.2 mm) and after it (13.1 +/- 0.9 mm) over respective basal pressure (before meal 3.2 +/- 0.4 mm), after meal 10.6 +/- 1.4 mm), whereas it was decreased on sweetness of saccharin (before meal 1.1 +/- 0.1 mm, after meal 4.8 +/- 0.5 mm), and glucose (before meal 1.7 +/- 0.2 mm; after meal 8.8 +/- 0.9 mm). Taste-induced motility changes were more pronounced on starvation than on fed state.