Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Ramos, Juan M.J.

Titel

Disconnection of the perirhinal and insular cortices severely disrupts taste neophobia

Ist Teil von

• Neurobiology of learning and memory, 2020-11, Vol.175, p.107324-107324, Article 107324

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Elsevier ScienceDirect Journals Complete

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• •Crossed lesions to perirhinal (Prh) and insular (IC) cortices disrupted taste neophobia.•Prh-IC disconnection did not affect attenuation of neophobia.•Data suggest, firstly, that both Prh and IC play a necessary role in taste neophobia.•Secondly, interaction between Prh and IC is critical for normal expression of taste neophobia. It is well known that the perirhinal (Prh) and insular (IC) cortices are reciprocally connected, mainly through ipsilateral projections. Although some studies have demonstrated that excitotoxic lesions to these regions, each separately, disrupt taste neophobia, it is not yet known whether the two regions have functional interactions with one another. To find out if they form a functional unit, we examined the effects of crossed excitotoxic lesions to the Prh and the contralateral IC (contralateral group). This group's performance was compared to that of rats with ipsilateral Prh and IC lesions (ipsilateral group) and to that of control-operated rats. All the animals received a 0.3% saccharin solution for fifteen minutes on five consecutive days. Rats with contralateral Prh-IC lesions drank significantly higher amounts of saccharin than the other groups during the first encounter with the novel taste, indicating a disruption in neophobia. However, the lesions did not disrupt attenuation of neophobia, with the contralateral group reaching asymptote in trial 2 and the rest of the groups after 3–5 days of exposure to the saccharin. These findings suggest that both Prh and IC play a necessary role in taste neophobia. Additionally, the two cortices function interdependently and their interaction is critical for normal expression of taste neophobia.