Stuart McCaughey, PhD

Assistant Professor
Neuroanatomy

Research Interests           

What we choose to eat has a major impact on our health.  For example, the risk of nearly all major diseases has been linked to ingestion of particular nutrients.  My primary goal is to explore how the sense of taste guides feeding behavior.  I have pursued this interest primarily by measuring intake of food and solutions in rats and mice, and by relating their behavioral preferences to the activity of taste-responsive neurons in the brain and peripheral nerves.  I am especially interested in how genes related to sugar preferences affect the responses evoked by sugars in the brains of mice.  Another area of interest is how taste perception affects consumption of minerals, such as calcium and sodium.  I have also conducted research for a pet food flavoring company, in order to understand why pyrophosphate compounds serve as flavor enhancers.

Representative publications:

Tordoff MG, Shao H, Alarcón LK, Margolskee RF, Mosinger B, Bachmanov AA, Reed DR, McCaughey S.  Involvement of T1R3 in calcium-magnesium taste.  Physiol Genom 34(3): 338-48, 2008. Abstract: Full Text PDF

McCaughey S.A.  The taste of sugars.  Neurosci Biobehav Rev 32(5): 1024-43, 2008 Abstract; Full Text

Guenthner, C.J., McCaughey, S.A., Tordoff, M.G., Baird, J.P.  Licking for taste solutions by potassium-deprived rats: Specificity and mechanisms.  Physiol Behav 93: 937-46, 2008. Abstract; Full Text

McCaughey SA, Giza BK, Tordoff, MG.  Taste and acceptance of pyrophosphates.  Am J Physiol 292: R2159-67, 2007. Abstract; Full Text PDF

McCaughey SA.  Taste-evoked responses to sweeteners in the nucleus of the solitary tract differ between C57BL/6ByJ and 129P3/J mice.  J Neurosci 27: 35-45, 2007. Abstract; Full Text PDF

McCaughey SA, Forestell CA, Tordoff MG Calcium deprivation increases the palatability of calcium solutions in rats. Physiol Behav 84: 335-42, 2005. Abstract