Viewing images of foods evokes taste quality-specific activity in gustatory insular cortex.

ABSTRACT: Previous studies have shown that the conceptual representation of food involves brain regions associated with taste perception. The specificity of this response, however, is unknown. Does viewing pictures of food produce a general, nonspecific response in taste-sensitive regions of the brain? Or is the response specific for how a particular food tastes? Building on recent findings that specific tastes can be decoded from taste-sensitive regions of insular cortex, we asked whether viewing pictures of foods associated with a specific taste (e.g., sweet, salty, and sour) can also be decoded from these same regions, and if so, are the patterns of neural activity elicited by the pictures and their associated tastes similar? Using ultrahigh-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging at hig

SUBMITTER: Avery JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7812770 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature