BOLD FMRI Assessment of the Functional Response to Taste Stimulation in Rat Brain

Ikuhiro Kida¹, Yoko Hoshi¹, Yoshinobu Iguchi¹

Some aspects of taste information processing have not been conclusively clarified, such as the process by which the gustatory cortex uses spatial codes to characterize taste information.We used BOLD fMRI measurements obtained at 7 T in an animal system to investigate the process by which taste information is encoded. Sucrose yielded a reproducible BOLD signal increase in the gustatory cortex. During taste stimulation, BOLD signals were also detected in the lip region of the primary somatosensory cortex, secondary somatosensory cortex, and amygdalae. This is the first study that used BOLD fMRI to observe gustatory activation in the rat brain.