Kobayashi, M;
Sasabe, T;
Shigihara, Y;
Tanaka, M;
Watanabe, Y;
(2011)
Gustatory Imagery Reveals Functional Connectivity from the Prefrontal to Insular Cortices Traced with Magnetoencephalography.
PLOS ONE
, 6
(7)
, Article e21736. 10.1371/journal.pone.0021736.
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Abstract
Our experience and prejudice concerning food play an important role in modulating gustatory information processing; gustatory memory stored in the central nervous system influences gustatory information arising from the peripheral nervous system. We have elucidated the mechanism of the 'top-down" modulation of taste perception in humans using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and demonstrated that gustatory imagery is mediated by the prefrontal (PFC) and insular cortices (IC). However, the temporal order of activation of these brain regions during gustatory imagery is still an open issue. To explore the source of "top-down" signals during gustatory imagery tasks, we analyzed the temporal activation patterns of activated regions in the cerebral cortex using another non-invasive brain imaging technique, magnetoencephalography (MEG). Gustatory imagery tasks were presented by words (Letter G-V) or pictures (Picture G-V) of foods/beverages, and participants were requested to recall their taste. In the Letter G-V session, 7/9 (77.8%) participants showed activation in the IC with a latency of 401.7 +/- 34.7 ms (n = 7) from the onset of word exhibition. In 5/7 (71.4%) participants who exhibited IC activation, the PFC was activated prior to the IC at a latency of 315.2 +/- 56.5 ms (n = 5), which was significantly shorter than the latency to the IC activation. In the Picture G-V session, the IC was activated in 6/9 (66.7%) participants, and only 1/9 (11.1%) participants showed activation in the PFC. There was no significant dominance between the right and left IC or PFC during gustatory imagery. These results support those from our previous fMRI study in that the Letter G-V session rather than the Picture G-V session effectively activates the PFC and IC and strengthen the hypothesis that the PFC mediates "top-down" control of retrieving gustatory information from the storage of long-term memories and in turn activates the IC.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Gustatory Imagery Reveals Functional Connectivity from the Prefrontal to Insular Cortices Traced with Magnetoencephalography |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0021736 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0021736 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2011 Kobayashi et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This work was supported by Grant for the Promotion of Multi-Disciplinary Research Projects entitled “Translational Research Network on Orofacial Neurological Disorders” from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to M.K.; The Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private School of Japan to M.K.; and Nihon University Joint Research Grant to M.K. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. |
| Keywords: | POSITRON-EMISSION-TOMOGRAPHY, ORBITOFRONTAL CORTEX, TASTE PERCEPTION, MACAQUE MONKEY, BRAIN, AREAS, REPRESENTATION, STIMULATION, ACTIVATION, NEURONS |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Imaging Neuroscience |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1319364 |
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