Dynamical structure of cortical taste responses revealed by precisely-timed optogenetic perturbation

The purpose of perception is driving action. During tasting, for instance, every stimulus must be either swallowed or rejected (the latter via a behavior known as "gaping"). Taste responses in the rodent primary gustatory cortex (GC) span this sensorimotor divide, progressing through a ser...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inbioRxiv
Main Authors Mukherjee, Narendra, Wachutka, Joseph, Katz, Donald B
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Cold Spring Harbor Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 09.02.2019
Subjects
Cortex (gustatory)
Cortex (motor)
Cortex (somatosensory)
Firing rate
Information processing
Palatability
Swallowing
Taste
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Summary:The purpose of perception is driving action. During tasting, for instance, every stimulus must be either swallowed or rejected (the latter via a behavior known as "gaping"). Taste responses in the rodent primary gustatory cortex (GC) span this sensorimotor divide, progressing through a series of firing epochs that culminate in the emergence of action-related firing. Population analyses reveal this emergence to be a sudden, coherent ensemble transition that, despite varying in latency between trials, precedes gaping onset by 0.2-0.3s. Here, we tested whether this transition drives gaping, delivering 0.5s GC perturbations at various time-points in tasting trials. Perturbations significantly delayed gaping, but only when they preceded the action-related transition - thus, the same perturbation might have an impact or not, depending on the transition latency in that particular trial. Our results suggest a distributed attractor network model of taste processing, and a dynamical role for cortex in driving motor behavior. Footnotes * This is an updated version of the manuscript that is being submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.
DOI:10.1101/486043