Trying to detect taste in a tasteless solution: modulation of early gustatory cortex by attention to taste.
Selective attention is thought to be associated with enhanced processing in modality-specific cortex. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to evaluate brain response during a taste detection task. We demonstrate that trying to detect the presence of taste in a tasteless solution results in enhanced activity in insula and overlying operculum. The same task does not recruit orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Instead, the OFC responds preferentially during receipt of an unpredicted taste stimulus. These findings demonstrate functional specialization of taste cortex in which the insula and the overlying operculum are recruited during taste detection and selective attention to taste, and the OFC is recruited during receipt of an unpredicted taste stimulus.
Veldhuizen
Maria G
MG
Affective Sensory Neuroscience, The John B. Pierce Laboratory, 290 Congress Avenue, New Haven, CT 06519, USA. mveldhuizen@jbpierce.org
Bender
Genevieve
G
Constable
R Todd
RT
Small
Dana M
DM
D000328:Adult; D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012996:Solutions / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013268:Stimulation, Chemical; D013649:Taste / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*
D012996:Solutions