Spatially Distributed Representation of Taste Quality in the Gustatory Insular Cortex of Behaving Mice.

ABSTRACT: Visual, auditory, and somatosensory cortices are topographically organized, with neurons responding to similar sensory features clustering in adjacent portions of the cortex. Such topography has not been observed in the piriform cortex, whose responses to odorants are sparsely distributed across the cortex. The spatial organization of taste responses in the gustatory insular cortex (GC) is currently debated, with conflicting evidence from anesthetized rodents pointing to alternative and mutually exclusive models. Here, we rely on calcium imaging to determine how taste and task-related variables are represented in the superficial layers of GC of alert, licking mice. Our data show that the various stimuli evoke sparse responses from a combination of broadly and narrowly tuned neurons. Analys

SUBMITTER: Chen K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7855361 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature