Integration of taste and olfactory signals in gustatory cortex

描述（由申请人提供）：来自多个模态的感觉信息的整合被认为增强了会聚刺激的检测。这种多模态整合最初被认为只发生在更高级的皮层区域，如前额叶皮层。然而，最近的研究表明，在每个初级感觉皮层，包括味觉皮层（GC）的多模态感觉反应。GC是负责处理与味觉相关的信息的初级皮层，并且已知编码与味觉相关的多感官信息，例如温度，触觉和预期线索。然而，最显着的感官相互作用，味觉和嗅觉，还没有探索在GC电路水平。味觉和嗅觉是密切相关的。解剖学和神经影像学研究已经开始描述这两种方式的协同整合，并建议GC作为一个主要的整合化学感觉节点。尽管取得了很大的进展，但关于GC中单个神经元是否以及如何整合多模式化学感受整合的信息很少。这项研究分为三步，所有这些都依赖于多电极技术来记录GC中单个神经元的集合，同时大鼠口内采样味道和气味。第一个实验旨在确定GC中的单个神经元如何代表味觉和气味。在更好地理解GC化学感受反应之后，第二个实验将检验气味-味觉体验调节GC化学感受活性的假设。第三个实验继续沿着这条轨迹，探讨如何不一致的气味，味道的混合物抑制GC的化学感觉活动。总而言之，在这个R 03提案中概述的实验将奠定一个基础，深入了解的电路水平整合的多模态化学感觉信息的GC警觉啮齿动物。如果成功的话，这项研究将阐明GC中的单个神经元如何处理生态协同化学感觉信息，并将GC建立为与食物相关的刺激的多感觉整合的主要区域。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Integration of sensory information from multiple modalities is believed to enhance the detection of convergent stimuli. This multimodal integration was originally theorized to occur only in higher order cortical areas, such as prefrontal cortex. However, recent research has shown multimodal sensory responses in every primary sensory cortex, including gustatory cortex (GC). GC is the primary cortex responsible for processing information related to taste and is known to code multisensory information related to taste, such as temperature, touch and anticipatory cues. However, the most conspicuous sensory interaction, that of taste and olfaction, has not been explored at the GC circuit-level. Taste and olfaction are intimately linked. Anatomical and neuroimaging studies have begun to describe the synergistic integration of these two modalities and suggest GC as a primary integrative chemosensory node. Despite this great progress, very little information is available on whether and how single neurons in GC integrate multimodal chemosensory integration. The proposed research is a three step approach, all of which rely upon multielectrode techniques to record ensembles of single neurons in GC while rats intraorally sample tastes and odors. The first experiment is designed to determine how taste and odor are represented by single neurons in GC. After a better understanding of GC chemosensory response, the second experiment will test the hypothesis that odor-taste experience modulates chemosensory activity in GC. The third experiment continues along this trajectory to explore how incongruent odor-taste mixtures suppress chemosensory activity in GC. Altogether, the experiments outlined in this R03 proposal will lay a foundation for an in depth understanding of the circuit-level integration of multimodal chemosensory information in GC of alert rodents. If successful, this research will elucidate how single neurons in GC process ecologically synergistic chemosensory information and will establish GC as a primary area of multisensory integration of stimuli related to food.