Single and population coding of taste in the gustatory-cortex of awake mice

Levitan, David; Lin, Jian-You; Wachutka, Joseph; Mukherjee, Narendra; Nelson, Sacha B.; Katz, Donald B.

doi:10.1101/575522

Cited by 18 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Though largely consistent, the observed responses to taste qualities (19-25%), cue (6-10%), and licking (~5%) were relatively sparse compared with previous work [20,27,28]. This discrepancy could arise from several factors.…”

Section: Multimodal Responses In Gcsupporting

confidence: 63%

Spatially distributed representation of taste quality in the gustatory insular cortex of awake behaving mice

Chen

Kogan

Fontanini

2020

Preprint

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SUMMARYVisual, auditory and somatosensory cortices are topographically organized, with neurons responding to similar sensory features clustering in adjacent portions of the cortex. Such topography has not been observed in the piriform cortex, whose responses to odorants are sparsely distributed across the cortex. The spatial organization of taste responses in the gustatory insular cortex (GC) is currently debated, with conflicting evidence from anesthetized rodents pointing to alternative and mutually exclusive models. Here, we rely on calcium imaging to determine how taste and task-related variables are represented in the superficial layers of GC of alert, licking mice. Our data show that the various stimuli evoke sparse responses from a combination of broadly and narrowly tuned neurons. Analysis of the distribution of responses over multiple spatial scales demonstrates that taste representations are distributed across the cortex, with no sign of spatial clustering or topography. Altogether, data presented here support the idea that the representation of taste qualities in GC of alert mice is sparse and distributed, analogous to the representation of odorants in piriform cortex.

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Section: Multimodal Responses In Gcsupporting

confidence: 63%

Spatially distributed representation of taste quality in the gustatory insular cortex of awake behaving mice

Chen

Kogan

Fontanini

2020

Preprint

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“…Most significantly, our results were in agreement with the conclusions reached in recent studies in which gustatory stimuli were delivered directly into the oral cavity. In fact, both in-vivo calcium imaging (Fletcher et al 2017;Livneh et al 2017) and electrophysiological recordings from awake mice (Levitan et al 2019) have indicated that a substantial fraction of GC neurons are modulated by gustatory stimuli and are likely to respond in a broadly tuned manner.…”

Section: Chemosensory and Palatability Neurons In The Gc Of Active LImentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although a considerable amount of studies have investigated either spatial features of cortical taste-evoked activity in-vivo (Chen et al 2011;Fletcher et al 2017;Lavi et al 2018;Livneh et al 2017) or taste behavior (Graham et al 2014;Peng et al 2015), limited information is available on cortical taste electrophysiology in awake mice. One recent study described how GC neurons encoded gustatory information when taste stimuli were injected into the mouths of alert mice via intraoral cannulas (IOCs) (Levitan et al 2019). While IOCs provide a reliable and rapid method to deliver taste solutions, they add a degree of passivity to taste delivery and could potentially alter the sequence of events associated with the neural processing of gustatory information (Roussin et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cortical processing of chemosensory and hedonic features of taste in active licking mice

Bouaichi

Vincis

2020

Preprint

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ABSTRACTIn the last two decades, a considerable amount of work has been devoted to investigating the neural processing and dynamics of the primary taste cortex of rats. Surprisingly, much less information is available on cortical taste electrophysiology in awake mice, an animal model that is taking a more prominent role in taste research. Here we present electrophysiological evidence demonstrating how the gustatory cortex (GC) encodes information pertaining the basic taste qualities (sweet, salty, sour, and bitter) when stimuli are actively sampled through licking, the stereotyped behavior by which mice control the access of fluids in the mouth. Mice were trained to receive each stimulus on a fixed ratio schedule in which they had to lick a dry spout six times to receive a tastant on the seventh lick. Electrophysiological recordings confirmed that GC neurons encode both chemosensory and hedonic aspects of actively sampled tastants. In addition, our data revealed two other main findings; GC neurons encoded information about taste identity in as little as 120 ms. Consistent with the ability of GC neurons to rapidly encode taste information, nearly half of the recorded neurons exhibited spiking activity that was entrained to licking at rates up to 8 Hz. Overall, our results highlight how the GC of mice processes tastants when they are actively sensed through licking, reaffirming and expanding our knowledge on cortical taste processing.NEW & NOTEWORTHYRelatively little information is available on the neural dynamics of taste processing in the mouse gustatory cortex (GC). In this study we investigate how the GC encodes information of the qualities and hedonics of a broad panel of gustatory stimuli when tastants are actively sampled through licking. Our results show that the GC neurons broadly encode taste qualities but also process taste hedonics and licking information in a temporally dynamic manner.

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“…The third epoch (palatability) begins about a second after stimulus delivery and relates to the processing of taste palatability. This coding scheme has been further refined through trial-by-trial ensemble analyses and has been extensively validated by experimental evidence in rats and mice [6, 7, 16, 29, 30]. Alas, one of the limitations of this model has been its exclusive reliance on experiments in which rodents consume tastants that are flushed directly into the oral cavity through a surgically implanted intraoral cannula.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic representation of taste-related decisions in the gustatory insular cortex of mice

Vincis

Chen

Czarnecki

et al. 2019

Preprint

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SUMMARYResearch over the past decade has established the gustatory insular cortex (GC) as a model for studying how primary sensory cortices integrate multiple sensory, affective and cognitive signals. This integration occurs through time varying patterns of neural activity. Selective silencing of GC activity during specific temporal windows provided evidence for GC’s role in mediating taste palatability and expectation. Recent results also suggest that this area may play a role in decision making. However, existing data are limited to GC involvement in controlling the timing of stereotyped, orofacial reactions to aversive tastants during consumption. Here we present electrophysiological, chemogenetic and optogenetic results demonstrating the key role of GC in the execution of a taste-guided, reward-directed decision making task. Mice were trained in a taste-based, two-alternative choice task, in which they had to associate tastants sampled from a central spout with different actions (i.e., licking either a left or a right spout). Stimulus sampling and action were separated by a delay period. Electrophysiological recordings of single units revealed chemosensory processing during the sampling period and the emergence of task-related, cognitive signals during the delay period. Chemogenetic silencing of GC impaired task performance. Optogenetic silencing of GC allowed us to tease apart the contribution of activity during the sampling and the delay periods. While silencing during the sampling period had no effect, silencing during the delay period significantly impacted behavioral performance, demonstrating the importance of the cognitive signals processed by GC during this temporal window in driving decision making.Altogether, our data highlight a novel role of GC in controlling taste-guided, reward-directed choices and actions.

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Single and population coding of taste in the gustatory-cortex of awake mice

Cited by 18 publications

References 55 publications

Spatially distributed representation of taste quality in the gustatory insular cortex of awake behaving mice

Spatially distributed representation of taste quality in the gustatory insular cortex of awake behaving mice

Cortical processing of chemosensory and hedonic features of taste in active licking mice

Dynamic representation of taste-related decisions in the gustatory insular cortex of mice

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