Credit score: Unsplash/CC0 Public Area
Why will we crave candy treats over more healthy choices? Whereas it comes right down to how our brains course of style and what we anticipate from the meals in entrance of us, a brand new examine from Florida State College exhibits that extra mind areas are concerned within the course of than beforehand thought.
A crew of FSU neuroscientists has discovered that the mediodorsal thalamus, a mind area not beforehand linked to style, performs a key position in how we understand and anticipate taste. The findings supply new perception into how meals preferences kind and why they’re so arduous to interrupt.
The crew, led by Assistant Professor of Organic Science and Neuroscience Roberto Vincis, discovered that neurons within the mediodorsal thalamus reply each to the sensory particulars of style—like whether or not one thing is good or salty—and to cues that sign what sort of style is coming. That means this mind area is concerned not simply in experiencing taste but in addition in predicting it. The work was revealed in The Journal of Neuroscience.
“The mediodorsal thalamus has traditionally been studied in relation to higher-order functions, such as reward processing, decision-making and multisensory integration,” mentioned Vincis, who can also be affiliated with FSU’s Institute of Molecular Biophysics. “Because of this, it wasn’t considered a region that would process or represent basic taste information, like identifying what a taste is or how intense it is, especially in the absence of associations with other sensory modalities like smell.”
The gustatory pathway begins when our style buds detect a style and ends with that info reaching the gustatory cortex, a mind area within the cerebral cortex, or the outer layer of the mind. Sensory info, the information gathered from sight, listening to, contact, scent and style, is built-in with the expertise of 1’s habits or temper on the time of consumption.
One expertise is commonly all it takes to develop particular consuming habits, comparable to a choice for or aversion to sure meals, which might have long-term results on our vitamin and wellness.
“This research lays the foundation for work that makes up the bigger picture of the diagnosis and management of taste disorders and other aspects of human behavior that are impacted by taste,” mentioned Katherine Odegaard, a postdoctoral researcher within the Vincis Laboratory and the paper’s first creator.
“Investigating the connection between the gustatory cortex and mediodorsal thalamus allows us to better understand how taste information is processed in the brain. While the mediodorsal thalamus was not considered part of the ‘classical’ taste pathway until now, our study found that it does process taste information and expectation related to taste, suggesting that this region plays a larger role in our eating behaviors than we thought.”
The crew discovered that the mediodorsal thalamus encodes style info within the absence of odor, a novel discovering within the areas of chemosensation and ingestive habits, and that neurons within the area reply otherwise to various style concentrations.
This means that the mediodorsal thalamus cannot solely distinguish completely different style qualities, like candy vs. bitter, but in addition establish completely different concentrations of style in candy and salty meals—like candy however not too candy or salty however not too salty—in a linear vogue; as salt or sucrose focus elevated, some neurons’ responses elevated and a few decreased.
Researchers additionally discovered that neurons within the mediodorsal thalamus reply not solely to style itself but in addition to non-gustatory sensory cues like sounds that sign whether or not an upcoming style will likely be nice or disagreeable, suggesting this area helps the mind put together for what’s about to be skilled.
“It was surprising to see how different groups of neurons responded in our study,” Odegaard mentioned. “Some neurons responded solely to particular sounds, like how the jingle of an ice cream truck would possibly make us anticipate one thing candy. Nevertheless, one other group of neurons appeared to characterize not simply the auditory cue, but in addition the precise style it predicted—whether or not it was nice or disagreeable.
“It could be that these neuron groups play a larger role in guiding behavior through predicted and expected outcomes, which is another reason why further investigation into the mediodorsal thalamus is necessary.”
Extra info:
Katherine E. Odegaard et al, Neural Processing of Style-Associated Indicators within the Mediodorsal Thalamus of Mice, The Journal of Neuroscience (2025). DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1500-24.2025
Offered by
Florida State College
Quotation:
Need broccoli or ice cream? Scientists uncover complexities in how your mind chooses (2025, June 23)
retrieved 23 June 2025
from https://medicalxpress.com/information/2025-06-broccoli-ice-cream-scientists-uncover.html
This doc is topic to copyright. Aside from any truthful dealing for the aim of personal examine or analysis, no
half could also be reproduced with out the written permission. The content material is offered for info functions solely.
