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Sucrose intensity coding and decision-making in rat gustatory cortices.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Fonseca, E; de Lafuente, V; Simon, SA; Gutierrez, R
Published in: Elife
November 19, 2018

Sucrose's sweet intensity is one attribute contributing to the overconsumption of high-energy palatable foods. However, it is not known how sucrose intensity is encoded and used to make perceptual decisions by neurons in taste-sensitive cortices. We trained rats in a sucrose intensity discrimination task and found that sucrose evoked a widespread response in neurons recorded in posterior-Insula (pIC), anterior-Insula (aIC), and Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Remarkably, only a few Intensity-selective neurons conveyed the most information about sucrose's intensity, indicating that for sweetness the gustatory system uses a compact and distributed code. Sucrose intensity was encoded in both firing-rates and spike-timing. The pIC, aIC, and OFC neurons tracked movement direction, with OFC neurons yielding the most robust response. aIC and OFC neurons encoded the subject's choices, whereas all three regions tracked reward omission. Overall, these multimodal areas provide a neural representation of perceived sucrose intensity, and of task-related information underlying perceptual decision-making.

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Published In

Elife

DOI

EISSN

2050-084X

Publication Date

November 19, 2018

Volume

7

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Taste
  • Sucrose
  • Rats
  • Prefrontal Cortex
  • Neurons
  • Decision Making
  • Cerebral Cortex
  • Animals
  • Action Potentials
  • 42 Health sciences
 

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Fonseca, E., de Lafuente, V., Simon, S. A., & Gutierrez, R. (2018). Sucrose intensity coding and decision-making in rat gustatory cortices. Elife, 7. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.41152
Fonseca, Esmeralda, Victor de Lafuente, Sidney A. Simon, and Ranier Gutierrez. “Sucrose intensity coding and decision-making in rat gustatory cortices.Elife 7 (November 19, 2018). https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.41152.
Fonseca E, de Lafuente V, Simon SA, Gutierrez R. Sucrose intensity coding and decision-making in rat gustatory cortices. Elife. 2018 Nov 19;7.
Fonseca, Esmeralda, et al. “Sucrose intensity coding and decision-making in rat gustatory cortices.Elife, vol. 7, Nov. 2018. Pubmed, doi:10.7554/eLife.41152.
Fonseca E, de Lafuente V, Simon SA, Gutierrez R. Sucrose intensity coding and decision-making in rat gustatory cortices. Elife. 2018 Nov 19;7.

Published In

Elife

DOI

EISSN

2050-084X

Publication Date

November 19, 2018

Volume

7

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Taste
  • Sucrose
  • Rats
  • Prefrontal Cortex
  • Neurons
  • Decision Making
  • Cerebral Cortex
  • Animals
  • Action Potentials
  • 42 Health sciences