Representation of umami and salt taste in the human brain

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Representation of umami and salt taste in the human brain Preet Bano Singh1*, Emilia Iannilli1 and Thomas Hummel1 1 University of Dresden Medical School, Deapertment of Otorhinolaryngology, Germany Introduction: The aim of this fMRI study was two-fold 1) to elucidate the cerebral processing of salt and umami taste and 2)to investigate the laterality of the gustatory system. Materials and Methods: A total of 24 right handed subjects participated in this study. The salt and umami taste stimuli were presented at suprathreshold concentrations on the lateral ridges of the subjects tongue through a gustometer. The sequence was presented in a session of 6 repetitions on/off -block per stimulus and per side. The BOLD signal (blood oxygenation level dependent) was detected by means of a 1.5 T scanner. fMRI data analysis was implemented in SPM5 (p<0.005 cluster level= 5). Results: The main effect of the tastants was activation in the primary and secondary gustatory cortex. However, different coordinates of the activated areas were found for the two tastants inside the same brain, suggesting a segregation of the brain areas involved with the tastants. Comparing the two stimuli we found that the positive effect of MSG on NaCl was evidently highlighted in the limbic lobe. On the contrary the positive effect of NaCl on MSG elicited activations in areas more common to taste perception. The conjunction analysis revealed common activated areas for the two tastants in the primary (SI) and secondary (SII) somatosensory cortex, premotor cortex, but also in the secondary taste areas. With regard to lateralization within the gustatory system, the BOLD contrast for the MSG stimulus was significantly bigger on the right side of the brain when the stimulus was presented to the left side as compared to the right side presentation of the stimulus. Moreover the opposite contrast for MSG highlighted only few brain areas including the left orbitofrontal cortex. The contrary appeared when the stimulus was NaCl. Conclusions: This result suggests a contralaterality of the brain response to the MSG stimuli but an ipsilaterality for the NaCl stimuli with a strong and general right sided lateralization of the brain for salt taste perception. Keywords: fMRI, gustatory cortex, limbic lobe, salt, Taste, umami Conference: Human Chemosensation 2010, Dresden, Germany, 2 Dec - 4 Dec, 2010. Presentation Type: Presentation Topic: Human Chemosensation 2010 Citation: Singh P, Iannilli E and Hummel T (2011). Representation of umami and salt taste in the human brain. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Human Chemosensation 2010. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2011.85.00002 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 26 Jan 2011; Published Online: 03 May 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Preet Bano Singh, University of Dresden Medical School, Deapertment of Otorhinolaryngology, Dresden, 01307, Germany, p.b.singh@odont.uio.no Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Preet Bano Singh Emilia Iannilli Thomas Hummel Google Preet Bano Singh Emilia Iannilli Thomas Hummel Google Scholar Preet Bano Singh Emilia Iannilli Thomas Hummel PubMed Preet Bano Singh Emilia Iannilli Thomas Hummel Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.