Research Project
10316126
Project Summary/Abstract We like to think of taste as working relatively simply?a sweet taste is recognized as sweet by virtue of activating certain cells on 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 whether the morsel is palatable enough to swallow. My lab studies this process by recording from multiple parts of the taste system while active rats are sampling various tastes. We have observed this decision-making process in action in taste cortex, where neural ensembles report, in turn, that a taste is on the tongue, that the taste is (say) sugar, and that it (the rat) currently likes the taste; this last step appears to be one arrived at suddenly, in a moment of insight?the food rolls around in the rat?s mouth for 0.5-1.5 seconds, and then the decision is made. This process clearly involves and requires cortex, but it is just as clear that cortex doesn?t work alone. Here, we will do rigorous tests of where that information in cortex comes from (specifically examining the roles played by amygdala and hypothalamus), in the process revealing novel systems-level mechanisms of taste 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.
