A neural mechanism for learning from delayed postingestive feedback.

ABSTRACT: Animals learn the value of foods on the basis of their postingestive effects and thereby develop aversions to foods that are toxic^1-10 and preferences to those that are nutritious^11-13. However, it remains unclear how the brain is able to assign credit to flavours experienced during a meal with postingestive feedback signals that can arise after a substantial delay. Here we reveal an unexpected role for the postingestive reactivation of neural flavour representations in this temporal credit-assignment process. To begin, we leverage the fact that mice learn to associate novel^14,15, but not familiar, flavours with delayed gastrointestinal malaise signals to investigate how the brain represents flavours that support aversive postingestive learning. Analyses of

SUBMITTER: Zimmerman CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12176619 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature