Neural Ensembles in Taste Coding

Fontanini, Alfredo; Grossman, Stephen; Revill, B.A.; Katz, Donald B.

doi:10.1016/b978-012370880-9.00088-8

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 100 publications

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“…Thereafter, appreciation of the ephemeral detection of static sensory stimuli (Riggs et al ., 1953; Land, 1999), and the dynamic multitasking in central neural networks that form sensory perceptions (Katz, 2005; Fontanini et al . 2008) by “inference” (Ramachandran, 2005; Gawande, 2008) will forge a sea change in understanding of sensory system function.…”

Section: Taste Quality Codesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cracking taste codes by tapping into sensory neuron impulse traffic

Frank

Lundy

Contreras

2008

Progress in Neurobiology

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Insights into the biological basis for mammalian taste quality coding began with electrophysiological recordings from "taste" nerves and this technique continues to produce essential information today. Chorda tympani (geniculate ganglion) neurons, which are particularly involved in taste quality discrimination, are specialists or generalists. Specialists respond to stimuli characterized by a single taste quality as defined by behavioral cross-generalization in conditioned taste tests. Generalists respond to electrolytes that elicit multiple aversive qualities. Na + -salt (N) specialists in rodents and sweet-stimulus (S) specialists in multiple orders of mammals are well-characterized. Specialists are associated with species' nutritional needs and their activation is known to be malleable by internal physiological conditions and contaminated external caloric sources. S specialists, associated with the heterodimeric G-protein coupled receptor: T1R, and N specialists, associated with the epithelial sodium channel: ENaC, are consistent with labeled line coding from taste bud to afferent neuron. Yet, S-specialist neurons and behavior are less specific thanT1R2-3 in encompassing glutamate and E generalist neurons are much less specific than a candidate, PDK TRP channel, sour receptor in encompassing salts and bitter stimuli. Specialist labeled lines for nutrients and generalist patterns for aversive electrolytes may be transmitting taste information to the brain side by side. However, specific roles of generalists in taste quality coding may be resolved by selecting stimuli and stimulus levels found in natural situations. T2Rs, participating in reflexes via the glossopharynygeal nerve, became highly diversified in mammalian phylogenesis as they evolved to deal with dangerous substances within specific environmental niches. Establishing the information afferent neurons traffic to the brain about natural taste stimuli imbedded in dynamic complex mixtures will ultimately "crack taste codes."

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Section: Taste Quality Codesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cracking taste codes by tapping into sensory neuron impulse traffic

Frank

Lundy

Contreras

2008

Progress in Neurobiology

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“…The study of interactive population coding in central areas related to taste processing has still a long way to go [74]. Characterizing such interactions will provide the necessary framework for a complete understanding of the functioning of taste networks.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparative analysis of neural taste processing in animals

Sanchez

Giurfa

2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Understanding taste processing in the nervous system is a fundamental challenge of modern neuroscience. Recent research on the neural bases of taste coding in invertebrates and vertebrates allows discussion of whether labelled-line or across-fibre pattern encoding applies to taste perception. While the former posits that each gustatory receptor responds to one stimulus or a very limited range of stimuli and sends a direct 'line' to the central nervous system to communicate taste information, the latter postulates that each gustatory receptor responds to a wider range of stimuli so that the entire population of taste-responsive neurons participates in the taste code. Tastes are represented in the brain of the fruitfly and of the rat by spatial patterns of neural activity containing both distinct and overlapping regions, which are in accord with both labelled-line and acrossfibre pattern processing of taste, respectively. In both animal models, taste representations seem to relate to the hedonic value of the tastant (e.g. palatable versus non-palatable). Thus, although the labelled-line hypothesis can account for peripheral taste processing, central processing remains either unknown or differs from a pure labelled-line coding. The essential task for a neuroscience of taste is, therefore, to determine the connectivity of taste-processing circuits in central nervous systems. Such connectivity may determine coding strategies that differ significantly from both the labelled-line and the across-fibre pattern models.

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Neural Ensembles in Taste Coding

Cited by 2 publications

References 100 publications

Cracking taste codes by tapping into sensory neuron impulse traffic

Cracking taste codes by tapping into sensory neuron impulse traffic

A comparative analysis of neural taste processing in animals

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