Section of Brain Function Information, Supportive Center for Brain Research, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Aichi, 4448585, Japan.
Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14850, USA.
Nat Commun. 2019 Mar 5;10(1):1048. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-08857-z.
The mammalian tongue contains gustatory receptors tuned to basic taste types, providing an evolutionarily old hedonic compass for what and what not to ingest. Although representation of these distinct taste types is a defining feature of primary gustatory cortex in other animals, their identification has remained elusive in humans, leaving the demarcation of human gustatory cortex unclear. Here we used distributed multivoxel activity patterns to identify regions with patterns of activity differentially sensitive to sweet, salty, bitter, and sour taste qualities. These were found in the insula and overlying operculum, with regions in the anterior and middle insula discriminating all tastes and representing their combinatorial coding. These findings replicated at super-high 7 T field strength using different compounds of sweet and bitter taste types, suggesting taste sensation specificity rather than chemical or receptor specificity. Our results provide evidence of the human gustatory cortex in the insula.
哺乳动物的舌头上含有能感知基本味觉类型的味觉受体，为我们提供了一个进化而来的、关于吃什么和不吃什么的愉悦罗盘。虽然在其他动物中，这些不同的味觉类型的代表是初级味觉皮层的一个决定性特征，但在人类中，它们的识别仍然难以捉摸，这使得人类味觉皮层的划分不明确。在这里，我们使用分布式多体素活动模式来识别对甜、咸、苦和酸味觉质量有不同敏感的活动模式的区域。这些区域位于脑岛和覆盖其上的脑岛回，其中脑岛的前部和中部区域可以区分所有的味道，并对其进行组合编码。使用不同的甜和苦味觉类型的化合物，在超高场强 7T 下重复了这些发现，这表明了味觉感觉的特异性，而不是化学或受体特异性。我们的研究结果为脑岛中的人类味觉皮层提供了证据。
