Trigeminal-taste interaction in palatability processing.

Peripheral transection of the sensory branches of the trigeminal nerve in rats unbalanced palatability, selectively reducing the ingestive actions elicited by preferred tastes but leaving unchanged the aversive actions elicited by unpreferred tastes. The reduction in the number of positive ingestive actions occurred even though the capacity to emit these actions remained unimpaired. These findings show that there is an interaction between somatosensation and gustation in the processing of palatability.