Oral thermal processing in the gustatory cortex of awake mice

Chem Senses. 2023 Oct 18:bjad042. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjad042. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTOral temperature is a sensory cue relevant to food preference and nutrition. To understand how orally-sourced thermal inputs are represented in the gustatory cortex (GC), we recorded neural responses from the GC of male and female mice presented with deionized water at different innocuous temperatures (14 °C, 25 °C, 36 °C) and taste stimuli (room temperature). Our results demonstrate that GC neurons encode orally-sourced thermal information in the absence of classical taste qualities at the single neuron and population levels, as confirmed through additional experiments comparing GC neuron responses to water and artificial saliva. Analysis of thermal-evoked responses showed broadly tuned neurons that responded to temperature in a mostly monotonic manner. Spatial location may play a minor role regarding thermosensory activity; aside from the most ventral GC, neurons reliably responded to and encoded thermal information across the dorso-ventral and antero-postero cortical axes. Additional analysis revealed that more than half of GC neurons that encoded chemosensory taste stimuli also accurately discriminated thermal information, providing additional evidence of the GC's involvement in processing thermosensory information important for ingestive behaviors. In terms of convergence, we found that GC neurons encoding information about both taste and temperature were broadly tuned and car...

Source: Chemical Senses - October 18, 2023 Category: Biochemistry Authors: Cecilia G Bouaichi Katherine E Odegaard Camden Neese Roberto Vincis Source Type: research