Sodium Hunger
The Search for a Salty Taste

A wide-ranging review of sodium hunger and its physiological and neural basis.

Jay Schulkin (Author)

9780521353687, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 January 1992

208 pages, 89 b/w illus.
23.7 x 15.8 x 1.5 cm, 0.478 kg

"...each chapter is packed with descriptions of experimental methods and outcomes that are well done. The clarity and comprehensiveness is clearly the strength of the book. Moreover, Schulkin covers a wide array of topics related to sodium appetite...informative, easy to read, and at times provocative...should be an important sourcebook for novices, especially graduate students, to quickly obtain an accurate background on sodium hunger, as well as for established researchers and instructors..." The Quarterly Review of Biology

The hunger for sodium has been used as a model system in which to study how the brain produces motivated behaviour. In this account of the field Jay Schulkin draws together information across a range of disciplines and topics, ranging from the ecology of salt ingestion to the sodium molecule and the action of various hormones. The phenomenon of sodium hunger was discovered by Curt Richter, the great American psychobiologist, over 50 years ago. Its study has been of interest for some time: to naturalists, psychologists, endocrinologists, physiologists and neuroscientists. This book offers a systematic account of the behaviour of the sodium hungry animal, the endocrine and physiological mechanisms that act to maintain sodium balance and then act on the brain to promote the search for and the ingestion of salt. Finally, the book provides a description of a neural network that orchestrates the behaviour of salt seeking and salt ingestion. Graduate students and research workers in psychology, physiology and neuroscience will find valuable information in this review.

Introduction
Salt seeking behaviour
Hormonal regulation of salt intake
Gustatory contribution to salt intake
Physiological factors in the control of salt intake
Neural circuits underlying salt intake
Conclusion
Appendix
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Animal behaviour [PSVP], Perception [JMRP]