Development of the multisensory computations underlying flavor processing

风味加工基础的多感官计算的发展

• 批准号: 10584065
• 负责人: Joost Maier
• 金额: $ 41.92万
• 依托单位: WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-15 至 2027-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10584065
• 关键词: Address; Adult; Animal Model; Animals; Biological Models; Birth; Brain; Common Cold; Complex; Coupled; Data; Development; Diet; Dissociation; Eating; Electrophysiology (science); Exposure to; Face; Food; Foundations; Goals; Health; Human; Imaging Techniques; Individual; Intervention; Intuition; Life; Life Experience; Link; Longevity; Mission; Modality; Modeling; Nature; Neurons; Olfactory Cortex; Outcome; Pattern; Perception; Persons; Physiology; Prevention; Process; Rattus; Recording of previous events; Research; Research Personnel; Resolution; Rodent; Sensory; Sensory Process; Series; Shapes; Smell Perception; Stimulus; System; Taste Perception; Techniques; Work; awake; computational basis; experience; experimental study; extracellular; human imaging; human subject; insight; multisensory; neural; neural circuit; neuromechanism; non-invasive imaging; novel; operation; postnatal; postnatal development; response; sensory input; sensory system; temporal measurement

SUMMARY Food is perceived and enjoyed through the multisensory quality of “flavor”, which involves the senses of taste and smell, but is not easily dissociated into its components. Flavor perception has a major influence on food choice and is thus directly linked to health. However, the underlying neural mechanisms remain mysterious. Previous work in humans has suggested that the brain actively combines taste and smell inputs to create our sense of flavor, and that this process depends heavily on eating experience. However, human imaging techniques lack spatial and temporal resolution to provide a mechanistic understanding of how neural circuits produce multisensory flavor representations. Moreover, people’s highly subjective eating history precludes a systematic understanding of how experience drives the development of flavor processing. To overcome these issues, the present proposal takes a unique approach to the study of flavor. Using the awake, tasting rat as an animal model allows us to directly access to the neural computations underlying flavor processing at the cellular level, and complete control over the individual’s flavor experience. The proposed hypotheses build directly on our own recent findings on cross-modal flavor processing in rat olfactory cortex, as well as decades of work on the development of multisensory computations in cortical and subcortical regions of other multisensory systems. The project comprises a coherent series of experiments that systematically seeks to provide mechanistic understanding of the neural circuits that integrate flavor-related sensory information. Specifically, we will answer the following questions: 1) What are the guiding principles by which olfactory cortical circuits integrate taste and smell inputs? To address this, we will use electrophysiological techniques to record responses from olfactory cortical neurons to taste-smell mixtures as well as their unisensory components in awake adult rats; 2) How are the multisensory operations performed by olfactory cortical circuits shaped by experience with specific flavors? To address this, we will experimentally manipulate rats’ experience with specific taste-smell mixtures, and record responses from ensembles of olfactory cortical neurons to congruent, incongruent and unexposed taste-smell mixtures as well as their unisensory components; and 3) How does the ability to integrate cross-modal inputs develop across the lifespan? To address this, we will track uni- and cross-modal responsiveness of olfactory cortex in awake rats across different stages of early postnatal development; To successfully achieve these objectives, our unique team of investigators brings together expertise in flavor processing and awake rodent olfactory cortex physiology (PI Maier), the computational basis of multisensory interactions (Co-I Rowland), and the development of multisensory systems (Co-I Stein).

概括 通过“风味”的多感官质量，人们可以感知和享受食物，这涉及口味的感觉 和气味，但不容易分解为其组件。风味感知对食物有重大影响 选择，因此与健康直接相关。但是，潜在的神经机制仍然神秘。 以前在人类的工作表明，大脑会积极结合口味和气味输入，以创造我们的 风味感，这一过程在很大程度上取决于饮食经验。但是，人类成像 技术缺乏空间和临时分辨率，无法提供对神经回路的机械理解 产生了多感官风味表示。而且，人们的高度主观饮食史排除了 系统地了解体验如何推动风味处理的发展。克服这些 问题，本提案采用独特的风味研究方法。使用清醒，品尝老鼠作为 动物模型使我们能够直接访问细胞的神经收费。 水平，并完全控制个人的风味体验。提出的假设直接建立在 我们自己最近在大鼠嗅皮层中关于跨模式风味加工的发现以及数十年的工作 其他多感官系统的皮质和皮层下区域中多感觉计算的开发。 该项目包括一系列连贯的实验，这些实验有系统地寻求提供机械 了解整合了与风味相关的感觉信息的神经回路。具体来说，我们会回答 以下问题：1）嗅觉皮质回路整合口味和的指导原理是什么 闻到输入？为了解决这个问题，我们将使用电生理技术记录嗅觉的反应 皮质神经元可味味混合物以及它们在清醒的成年大鼠中的普遍成分； 2）如何 由特定口味的经验塑造的嗅觉皮质回路执行的多感官操作？ 为了解决这个问题，我们将在实验中操纵大鼠在特定的味觉混合物中的经验，并记录 嗅觉皮质神经元的合奏的反应 混合物及其普遍组成部分； 3）如何整合交叉模式输入的能力 在整个生命周期中发展？为了解决这个问题，我们将跟踪嗅觉的单个和跨模式的响应能力 早期产后发育的不同阶段醒着大鼠的皮质；成功实现这些 目标，我们独特的调查人员团队汇集了风味加工和清醒啮齿动物的专业知识 嗅觉皮层生理学（PI MAIER），多感官相互作用的计算基础（Co-I Rowland）和 多感觉系统的开发（Co-I Stein）。