fMRI Study of Taste Cortical Areas in Humans

• Published in: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Vol. 855; no. 1; pp. 535 - 545
• Main Authors: Faurion, Annick, Cerf, Barbara, Le Bihan, Denis, Pilliasa, Anne-Marie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.11.1998; Wiley
• Subjects: Bioengineering; Brain Mapping; Cerebral Cortex; Cerebral Cortex - cytology; Cerebral Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Cerebral Cortex - physiology; Humans; Imaging; Life Sciences; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Radiography; Taste; Taste - physiology
• ISSN: 0077-8923; 1749-6632
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1998.tb10623.x

We used 3 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with echo planar imaging to map taste projections in the human. Activations were found surrounding and buried in the sylvian fissure; the upper part of insula, the frontal operculum, and the foot of the pre‐ and postcentral gyri were usually activated. Moreover, we could describe, for the first time, a lateralized associative projection located in the lower part of the dominant hemisphere of the subject (n= 10). We also observed activations in the anterior cingulate gyrus, the centromedial thalamus, and other areas related to emotional or cognitive processes. Thirty subjects were submitted to a familiarization experiment sampling neophobic and nonneophobic stimuli. Measurements of isointense concentrations, magnitude estimates and hedonic values were assessed repetitively for 10 weeks. Five subjects performed 3 fMRI experiments, before, during and after familiarization. Psychophysical data showed a relationship between the evolution of the hedonic assessment and the intensity of the perception, and fMRI results showed a relationship between the evolution of the hedonic assessment and the evolution of the percent of activated pixels in taste cortical area.