1. The insulo-opercular cortex encodes food-specific content under controlled and naturalistic conditions
- Author
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Abanoub Mikhail, Cara Bohon, Eric B. Lee, Sandra Gattas, Austin Y. Feng, Jonathon J. Parker, Casey H. Halpern, Yuhao Huang, Bina Kakusa, Corey J. Keller, Fiene Marie Kuijper, Daniel A N Barbosa, and Rajat S. Shivacharan
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,0301 basic medicine ,Food intake ,Taste ,Science ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Frontal operculum ,Biology ,Cognitive neuroscience ,Neural circuits ,Article ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Cortex (anatomy) ,medicine ,Humans ,Food evaluation ,Cerebral Cortex ,Meal ,Gustatory system ,Multidisciplinary ,digestive, oral, and skin physiology ,Taste Perception ,Electroencephalography ,General Chemistry ,Middle Aged ,Electrophysiological Phenomena ,Frontal Lobe ,030104 developmental biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Food ,Feeding behaviour ,Female ,Cues ,Insula ,Neuroscience ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
The insulo-opercular network functions critically not only in encoding taste, but also in guiding behavior based on anticipated food availability. However, there remains no direct measurement of insulo-opercular activity when humans anticipate taste. Here, we collect direct, intracranial recordings during a food task that elicits anticipatory and consummatory taste responses, and during ad libitum consumption of meals. While cue-specific high-frequency broadband (70–170 Hz) activity predominant in the left posterior insula is selective for taste-neutral cues, sparse cue-specific regions in the anterior insula are selective for palatable cues. Latency analysis reveals this insular activity is preceded by non-discriminatory activity in the frontal operculum. During ad libitum meal consumption, time-locked high-frequency broadband activity at the time of food intake discriminates food types and is associated with cue-specific activity during the task. These findings reveal spatiotemporally-specific activity in the human insulo-opercular cortex that underlies anticipatory evaluation of food across both controlled and naturalistic settings., Animal studies have shown that insulo-opercular network function is critical in gustation and in behaviour based on anticipated food availability. The authors describe activities within the human insulo-opercular cortex which underlie anticipatory food evaluation in both controlled and naturalistic settings.
- Published
- 2021