Representation of Sweet and Salty Taste Intensity in the Brain

Maartje Sara Spetter¹, Paul A.M. Smeets¹, Cornelis de Graaf², Max A. Viergever¹

Sucrose and salt are commonly used to season foods. We investigated the brain representation of sweet and salty taste intensity using fMRI. 14 subjects visited twice and tasted a range of four solutions of either sucrose or salt (0 1 M). Insula activation increased with increasing concentration for both salt and sucrose. Moreover, despite similar subjective intensity ratings, insula activation by salt increased more with concentration than that by sucrose. Amygdala activation increased with increasing salt concentration only. In conclusion, sweet and salty taste intensity is represented in the insula.The greater responsiveness of the brain to saline provides supports for the idea that sensory-specific satiety may be stronger for savoury than for sweet tastes.