Abstract
The insulo-opercular network functions critically not only in encoding taste, but also in guiding behavior based on anticipated food availability. However, there remains no direct measurement of insulo-opercular activity when humans anticipate taste. Here, we collect direct, intracranial recordings during a food task that elicits anticipatory and consummatory taste responses, and during ad libitum consumption of meals. While cue-specific high-frequency broadband (70–170 Hz) activity predominant in the left posterior insula is selective for taste-neutral cues, sparse cue-specific regions in the anterior insula are selective for palatable cues. Latency analysis reveals this insular activity is preceded by non-discriminatory activity in the frontal operculum. During ad libitum meal consumption, time-locked high-frequency broadband activity at the time of food intake discriminates food types and is associated with cue-specific activity during the task. These findings reveal spatiotemporally-specific activity in the human insulo-opercular cortex that underlies anticipatory evaluation of food across both controlled and naturalistic settings.
Highlights
The insulo-opercular network functions critically in encoding taste, and in guiding behavior based on anticipated food availability
Human neuroimaging studies have suggested the involvement of the insular cortex and the overlying frontal operculum in taste evaluation and in representation of cues associated with food availability, a process that is dysregulated in the obese state11–13
To assess whether findings related to this task could be generalized to a naturalistic setting, where phases of food anticipation and consummation are not distinctly separated, we utilized recordings during epochs of ad libitum consumption captured by video recordings of regular meals
Summary
The insulo-opercular network functions critically in encoding taste, and in guiding behavior based on anticipated food availability. While cue-specific high-frequency broadband (70–170 Hz) activity predominant in the left posterior insula is selective for taste-neutral cues, sparse cue-specific regions in the anterior insula are selective for palatable cues Latency analysis reveals this insular activity is preceded by non-discriminatory activity in the frontal operculum. During ad libitum meal consumption, time-locked highfrequency broadband activity at the time of food intake discriminates food types and is associated with cue-specific activity during the task These findings reveal spatiotemporallyspecific activity in the human insulo-opercular cortex that underlies anticipatory evaluation of food across both controlled and naturalistic settings. Human neuroimaging studies have suggested the involvement of the insular cortex and the overlying frontal operculum in taste evaluation and in representation of cues associated with food availability, a process that is dysregulated in the obese state. We hypothesized that regions of the insuloopercular cortex that exhibit food-cue-specific activity would be involved in an expectant evaluation of food during regular meal consumption
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