# Spatial taste coding in mouse gustatory cortex

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE HEALTH SCI CTR · 2021 · $386,694

## Abstract

Project Summary
Ingestive decisions play a key role in a number of human conditions including obesity, diabetes, anorexia,
hypertension, and coronary artery disease. One of the most important factors regulating these decisions is
the sense of taste. The gustatory cortex (GC) in mammals has been shown to be involved in taste learning
and behavior, and electrophysiological and imaging studies suggest taste quality information is encoded in
the activity of both specific and broadly responsive taste-activated neurons. However, it is not clear how taste
quality is spatially organized across this brain area. We will use two-photon (2P) imaging to systematically
map taste quality across the breadth of GC, evaluating the hypothesis that it has an overlapping organization,
with likely overrepresentation of particular tastes at the anterior and posterior extremes. We will also combine
2P imaging with specific identification of cell types, accomplished by either Cre-dependent expression or
retrograde labeling. Finally we will evaluate taste responses in GC following taste learning. Collectively, these
experiments will shed light on how tastes are organized in this key brain area at a cellular level, and how they
are modified with behavior. Aim 1 will systematically map taste responses along the anterior-posterior axis,
and also with respect to dorsal-ventral location and depth. Aim 2 will compare taste responses in Thy1-
expressing pyramidal cells and GAD-expressing interneurons to the greater population of all labeled cells in
GC. Taste responses will also be examined in cells that project to contralateral cortex, or to amygdala. Aim 3
will investigate taste responses in GC neurons following taste aversion learning and extinction.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10146844
- **Project number:** 5R01DC016833-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE HEALTH SCI CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** John D Boughter
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $386,694
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-05-01 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10146844

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10146844, Spatial taste coding in mouse gustatory cortex (5R01DC016833-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10146844. Licensed CC0.

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