Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jingfeng Zhou, Chunying Jia, Marlian Montesinos-Cartagena, Matthew P. H. Gardner, Wenhui Zong, Geoffrey Schoenbaum
Summary: Neural elements in the brain can generalize common structures learned in different situations to speed up learning new problems. The orbitofrontal cortex can form and utilize schemas during learning to support complex cognitive operations.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ke Chen, Joshua F. Kogan, Alfredo Fontanini
Summary: Visual, auditory, and somatosensory cortices exhibit topographic organization, while the piriform cortex shows sparse distribution of responses to odorants. There is currently debate over the spatial organization of taste responses in the gustatory insular cortex.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yuhao Huang, Bina W. Kakusa, Austin Feng, Sandra Gattas, Rajat S. Shivacharan, Eric B. Lee, Jonathon J. Parker, Fiene M. Kuijper, Daniel A. N. Barbosa, Corey J. Keller, Cara Bohon, Abanoub Mikhail, Casey H. Halpern
Summary: The study reveals spatiotemporally-specific activity in the human insulo-opercular cortex that underlies anticipatory evaluation of food across both controlled and naturalistic settings.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Renee Hartig, Ali Karimi, Henry C. Evrard
Summary: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, this study investigated the macroscopic taste processing connectivity in anesthetized macaque monkeys. The results indicate significant correlations between brain regions across hemispheres in a bilaterally interconnected scheme for taste processing throughout the gustatory connectome. Three bilateral sub-networks were detected within the connectome, and differential processing of taste qualities was observed. Node centrality measures within the connectome graph were used to compute the importance of each region in taste processing.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Amanda E. Hernan, J. Matthew Mahoney, Willie Curry, Seamus Mawe, Rod C. Scott
Summary: The study reveals that neurons in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex form a functional network during spatial working memory tasks and are well modulated in time. However, animals with cortical malformation show poorly modulated neurons in time, leading to difficulties in encoding task parameters and integrating into a functional network.
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Jingyuan Sun, Shaonan Wang, Jiajun Zhang, Chengqing Zong
Summary: The article discusses the use of distributed semantic models (DSMs) to explain the cortical representation of language in the brain and explores the relationship between DSMs and neural activation patterns. The authors found that differences in the performance of different DSMs in modeling brain activities can be partially explained by the granularity of their semantic representations.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NEURAL NETWORKS AND LEARNING SYSTEMS
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Camden Neese, Cecilia G. Bouaichi, Tom Needham, Martin Bauer, Richard Bertram, Roberto Vincis
Summary: Neurons in the gustatory cortex encode taste information through both spike rate and timing, and considering the timing of licks improves taste discrimination.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Raul Ramos, Chi-Hong Wu, Gina G. Turrigiano
Summary: Generalization is an adaptive mnemonic process that allows animals to use past learning experiences to navigate future scenarios. However, overgeneralization is a characteristic feature of anxiety disorders. This study demonstrates that strong conditioning results in a long-lasting generalized aversion that can persist for at least 2 weeks. The synaptic plasticity mechanisms that govern memory generalization and its persistence are explored, showing that strong conditioning leads to a long-lasting increase in synaptic strengths throughout different layers of the gustatory cortex. Repeated exposure to the generalized tastant causes a rapid attenuation of the generalized aversion and a reversal of the conditioning-induced increases in synaptic strength. These changes are more pronounced in the superficial layers. The data suggest that layer-specific synaptic plasticity mechanisms separately govern the persistence and generalization of memory for conditioned taste aversion.
FRONTIERS IN CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Preeti F. Sareen, Li Yan McCurdy, Michael N. Nitabach
Summary: Feeding decisions in fruit flies are influenced by neural activity in a small population of neurons projecting to the fan-shaped body, integrating internal state, decision-relevant information, and previous experience. These neurons encode behavioral food choice and are inhibited by taste of the rejected food, highlighting the involvement of both taste quality and hunger state in decision-making.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Ayal Lavi, Megha Sehgal, Andre F. de Sousa, Donara Ter-Mkrtchyan, Fardad Sisan, Alessandro Luchetti, Anna Okabe, Cameron Bear, Alcino J. Silva
Summary: Memories are stored across multiple brain regions in ensembles of neurons. This study demonstrates that the allocation of aversive memories to a specific brain region directly affects the allocation of interconnected neurons in upstream brain regions in a behavior- and brain region-specific manner. The recruitment of presynaptic neurons across regions is initiated by downstream memory neurons through a retrograde mechanism, indicating that the coordination of memory ensembles during learning relies on a retrograde mechanism in addition to the anterograde flow of information between brain regions.
Article
Biology
Jian-You Lin, Narendra Mukherjee, Max J. Bernstein, Donald B. Katz
Summary: The study found that the basolateral amygdala plays an important role in organizing taste dynamics in the gustatory cortex. By disrupting activity in the BLA->GC axons using optogenetics, researchers were able to alter taste responses in rats and reduce evidence of palatability-related activity.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Shirley Xue Li Lim, Richard Hochenberger, Iryna Ruda, Gereon R. Fink, Shivakumar Viswanathan, Kathrin Ohla
Summary: This study investigates the encoding, maintenance, and retrieval of taste in working memory (WM), and finds that a single taste can be reliably recognized despite interference, while the maintenance of multiple tastes depends on their serial position. Recognition remains reliable for up to three tastes. Similar stimuli impair recognition in gustatory WM with increasing set size, masking the awareness of capacity limitations.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Ammar Idris, Brooke A. A. Christensen, Ellen M. M. Walker, Joost X. X. Maier
Summary: Flavour refers to the sensory experience of food, which is a combination of taste and odour. Previous research found a region in rats' olfactory cortex that responds to both taste and odour stimuli. This study revealed that taste and odour inputs interact in a non-linear manner in the posterior piriform cortex, forming amodal flavour representations that enhance identity coding.
JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-LONDON
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Joshua D. Sammons, Caroline E. Bass, Jonathan D. Victor, Patricia M. Di Lorenzo
Summary: This study investigated how GABA-derived inhibitory activity in the nucleus tractus solitarius affects the balance of taste- and lick-driven neuronal activity. Results showed that enhancing GABAergic tone can increase lick coherence, better distinguish basic taste qualities and different salts, as well as amplify the amount of information that discriminates palatable versus unpalatable tastants.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Robotics
Adam Pacheck, Steven James, George Konidaris, Hadas Kress-Gazit
Summary: We propose a framework for automatic encoding and repair of high-level tasks, abstracting sensor data into symbols and encoding robot capabilities in Linear Temporal Logic (LTL). Reactive high-level tasks can be specified by users, and a strategy can be automatically synthesized for the robot to execute if the task is feasible. If a task is not feasible, two methods are presented for suggesting additional skills or modifications to existing skills to make the task feasible. The framework is demonstrated on tasks involving block manipulation, plate manipulation, and vial manipulation with multiple sensor modalities, including raw images.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ROBOTICS RESEARCH
(2023)