Taste Quality Decoding Parallels Taste Sensations
Taste Quality Decoding Parallels Taste Sensations
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DOI：
10.1016/j.cub.2015.01.057
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发表时间：
2015-03-30
期刊：
影响因子：
9.2
通讯作者：
Ohla, Kathrin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Crouzet, Sebastien M.;Busch, Niko A.;Ohla, Kathrin
在大多数物种中，味觉是区分潜在营养和有害食物成分的关键，因此也是接受（或拒绝）食物的关键。味觉质量由舌头上的专门受体编码，这些受体检测与每种基本味道（甜，咸，酸，苦和咸味[1]）相对应的化学物质，然后味觉质量信息通过分离的神经纤维[2]，跨神经纤维的分布式编码[3]或动态放电模式[4]传输到味觉皮层。在啮齿类动物中，由标记线[2]和灵活的、依赖学习的表征[5]以及广泛调谐的神经元[6]进行的硬连线编码似乎是共存的。目前尚不清楚如何，何时以及在何处在皮层中建立味觉质量表征，以及这些表征是否用于感知决策。在这里，我们表明，神经元的反应模式允许解码的四个tastants（咸，甜，酸，苦）参与者品尝在一个给定的试验中，通过使用时间分辨的多变量模式分析的大规模电生理大脑反应。这一预测的发生与最早的味觉诱发反应起源于小脑和鳃盖皮层相吻合，表明质量是中央味觉系统中代表的味觉的第一属性之一。这些反应模式与味觉质量的感知决定相关：参与者辨别不太准确的味觉也会引起不太受歧视的大脑反应模式。因此，这些结果为味觉相关决策与这些大脑反应模式的预测价值之间的联系提供了第一个证据。
In most species, the sense of taste is key in the distinction of potentially nutritious and harmful food constituents and thereby in the acceptance (or rejection) of food. Taste quality is encoded by specialized receptors on the tongue, which detect chemicals corresponding to each of the basic tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and savory [1]), before taste quality information is transmitted via segregated neuronal fibers [2], distributed coding across neuronal fibers [3], or dynamic firing patterns [4] to the gustatory cortex in the insula. In rodents, both hardwired coding by labeled lines [2] and flexible, learning-dependent representations [5] and broadly tuned neurons [6] seem to coexist. It is currently unknown how, when, and where taste quality representations are established in the cortex and whether these representations are used for perceptual decisions. Here, we show that neuronal response patterns allow to decode which of four tastants (salty, sweet, sour, and bitter) participants tasted in a given trial by using time-resolved multivariate pattern analyses of large-scale electrophysiological brain responses. The onset of this prediction coincided with the earliest taste-evoked responses originating from the insula and opercular cortices, indicating that quality is among the first attributes of a taste represented in the central gustatory system. These response patterns correlated with perceptual decisions of taste quality: tastes that participants discriminated less accurately also evoked less discriminated brain response patterns. The results therefore provide the first evidence for a link between taste-related decision-making and the predictive value of these brain response patterns.