Neurons for Taste Loosely Distributed in Mouse Gustatory Cortex

Neurological representations of different tastes—like those of different smells but unlike those of sight, hearing, and touch—do not cluster in distinct spots within a murine brain region, a study shows.

Written byJef Akst

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ABOVE: Distribution of the neurons responding to five gustatory stimuli (S: sucrose, N: NaCl, CA: citric acid, Q: quinine, W: water)
KE CHEN, JOSHUA F. KOGAN, AND ALFREDO FONTANINI

The paper
K. Chen et al., “Spatially distributed representation of taste quality in the gustatory insular cortex of behaving mice,” Curr Biol, 31:247–256.e4, 2020.

Sensory information is often mapped onto the brain in a physical sense. The most famous case is that of the cortical homunculus, which depicts how representations of sensations of touch in the somatosensory cortex are spatially distributed according to where on the body touch was felt. Similar patterns of neurological organization can be found in the visual and auditory cortices, which map to locations in the visual field and in the cochlea, respectively. Smell does not follow any such organizational rules, however, and according to a new study of mice, neither does taste.

While a 2011 study from the ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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