Temporal Coding and Palatability in Gustatory Cortex

味觉皮层的时间编码和适口性

• 批准号: 8248693
• 负责人: Donald B Katz
• 金额: $ 30.22万
• 依托单位: BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-04-01 至 2016-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8248693
• 关键词: Amygdaloid structure; Area; Automobile Driving; Back; Behavioral; Biological; Biological Neural Networks; Brain; Brain Stem; Brain region; Cephalic; Child; Code; Complex; Computer Architectures; Data; Data Set; Decision Making; Eating; Eating Disorders; Electrodes; Emotions; Feedback; Food; Foundations; Hunger; Implant; Implanted Electrodes; Integration Host Factors; Light; Measures; Nature; Neurons; Oral cavity; Outcome; Parents; Perception; Physiological; Population; Pregnancy; Process; Quinine; Rattus; Research; Research Project Grants; Sampling; Seawater; Shapes; Site; Sodium Chloride; Solutions; Sucrose; Synapses; System; Taste Perception; Temporal Lobe; Testing; Thalamic structure; Thinking; Time; Tongue; Training; Ursidae Family; Work; awake; base; experience; feeding; fighting; interest; markov model; millisecond; network models; novel; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; research study; response; sensory system; sugar; sweet taste perception; tool

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We like to think of taste as working relatively simply: a sweet taste is recognized as sweet by virtue of activating certain parts of the tongue, and that information is used to drive neurons that cause us to eat more of whatever food is in our mouths. The truth, however, is much more interesting. A taste hits the tongue, and complex circuits in the brain go into action, passing food-related information back and forth as the system as a whole decides what to do, in light of experience and current conditions (e. g., hunger). My lab studies this process by recording from multiple parts of the taste system while active rats are sampling various tastes. Our work allows us to observe this decision-making process in action, as taste cortex realizes, sequentially, that a taste is on the tongue, that the taste is (say) sugar, and that it (the rat) currently likes the taste. The research that we're currently proposing will build on this foundation. First, we will do a direct, rigorous test of this characterization of taste processing in cortex, by measuring how cortical neurons handle salt. As the concentration of a salt solution increases, it becomes first more pleasing (just as a little salt on food is good) and then more aversive (like sea water); our Preliminary data shows us that, as expected, cortical neurons first code the concentration (what the taste is) and then its palatability (whether the taste is likeable). Our next experiment will look at where that information in cortex comes from, by recording from cortex and the amygdala (the seat of emotion in the brain) simultaneously. Does cortex figure this stuff out by itself, or does amygdala do the work, or do cortex and amygdala work hand-in-hand? This dual recording experiment will give us important clues. Finally, to test whether the clues that we observe mean what we think that they do, we will do one more experiment, in which we electrically stimulate the amygdala while the rat is in the midst of tasting; to the extent that the amygdala is important for the processing done by cortex, amygdalar stimulation should derail this cortical processing. As a whole, this research project has the potential to completely change the way we think about taste, and to usher in new thinking about perception in general-thinking that makes a great deal more biological sense, given the complexity of brain circuitry. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: We decide whether a food is worth eating on the basis of a host of factors, including experience and our current physiological state, and as such these decisions involve a relatively large part of our brains. Using salt as a probe, we will gather novel data providing important clues to precisely how the many neurons, and multiple brain regions, that make up our taste system work together to perform this feat. The more systemic understanding of taste that will emerge from this research will help us to develop tools to fight a spectrum of eating disorders, to aid parents with child feeding issues, and to cure vexing taste abnormalities such as develop during pregnancy.

描述（由申请人提供）：我们喜欢认为味道的作用相对简单：通过激活舌头的某些部分，甜味被识别为甜味，并且该信息被用来驱动神经元，导致我们吃更多的东西无论我们嘴里有什么食物。然而，事实要有趣得多。味道到达舌头，大脑中的复杂电路开始运作，来回传递与食物相关的信息，整个系统根据经验和当前条件（例如饥饿）决定要做什么。我的实验室通过在活跃的老鼠采样各种味道时记录味觉系统的多个部分来研究这个过程。我们的工作使我们能够观察这一决策过程的实际情况，因为味觉皮层依次意识到舌头上有一种味道，这种味道是（比如说）糖，并且它（老鼠）目前喜欢这种味道。我们目前提出的研究将建立在这个基础上。首先，我们将通过测量皮层神经元如何处理盐来对皮层味觉处理的特征进行直接、严格的测试。随着盐溶液浓度的增加，它首先变得更令人愉悦（就像食物中加一点盐是好的一样），然后变得更令人厌恶（就像海水一样）；我们的初步数据表明，正如预期的那样，皮质神经元首先编码浓度（味道是什么），然后编码适口性（味道是否令人喜欢）。我们的下一个实验将通过同时记录皮层和杏仁核（大脑中情绪的所在地）来研究皮层中的信息从何而来。是皮层自己解决这个问题，还是杏仁核完成工作，或者皮层和杏仁核携手工作？这个双重记录实验将为我们提供重要线索。最后，为了测试我们观察到的线索是否意味着我们认为的那样，我们将再做一项实验，在实验中，当老鼠正在品尝食物时，我们用电刺激杏仁核；就杏仁核对于皮层处理过程的重要性而言，杏仁核刺激应该会破坏这种皮层处理过程。总的来说，这个研究项目有可能彻底改变我们对味觉的思考方式，并在一般思维中引入关于感知的新思维，考虑到大脑回路的复杂性，这种思维具有更多的生物学意义。 公共卫生相关性：我们根据一系列因素（包括经验和我们当前的生理状态）来决定某种食物是否值得食用，因此这些决定涉及我们大脑的相对大部分。使用盐作为探针，我们将收集新的数据，为准确地了解构成味觉系统的许多神经元和多个大脑区域如何协同工作以完成这一壮举提供重要线索。这项研究将对味觉产生更系统的理解，这将有助于我们开发工具来对抗一系列饮食失调症，帮助父母解决儿童喂养问题，并治疗令人烦恼的味觉异常，例如怀孕期间出现的味觉异常。