Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Collections
    • Podcast
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
    • Information for Authors
    • Fees
    • Journal Clubs
    • eLetters
    • Submit
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Feedback
  • SUBSCRIBE

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Neuroscience
  • Log in
  • My Cart
Journal of Neuroscience

Advanced Search

Submit a Manuscript
  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Collections
    • Podcast
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
    • Information for Authors
    • Fees
    • Journal Clubs
    • eLetters
    • Submit
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Feedback
  • SUBSCRIBE
PreviousNext
Research Articles, Behavioral/Cognitive

Neural Representation of Intraoral Olfactory and Gustatory Signals by the Mediodorsal Thalamus in Alert Rats

Kelly E. Fredericksen and Chad L. Samuelsen
Journal of Neuroscience 26 October 2022, 42 (43) 8136-8153; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0674-22.2022
Kelly E. Fredericksen
Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky 40292
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Chad L. Samuelsen
Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky 40292
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Chad L. Samuelsen
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

The mediodorsal thalamus is a multimodal region involved in a variety of cognitive behaviors, including olfactory attention, odor discrimination, and the hedonic perception of flavors. Although the mediodorsal thalamus forms connections with principal regions of the olfactory and gustatory networks, its role in processing olfactory and gustatory signals originating from the mouth remains unclear. Here, we recorded single-unit activity in the mediodorsal thalamus of behaving female rats during the intraoral delivery of individual odors, individual tastes, and odor-taste mixtures. Our results are the first to demonstrate that neurons in the mediodorsal thalamus dynamically encode chemosensory signals originating from the mouth. This chemoselective population is broadly tuned, exhibits excited and suppressed responses, and responds to odor-taste mixtures differently than an odor or taste alone. Furthermore, a subset of chemoselective neurons encodes the palatability-related features of tastes and may represent associations between previously experienced odor-taste pairs. Our results further demonstrate the multidimensionality of the mediodorsal thalamus and provide additional evidence of its involvement in processing chemosensory information important for ingestive behaviors.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The perception of food relies on the concurrent processing of olfactory and gustatory signals originating from the mouth. The mediodorsal thalamus is a higher-order thalamic nucleus involved in a variety of chemosensory-dependent behaviors and connects the olfactory and gustatory cortices with the prefrontal cortex. However, it is unknown how neurons in the mediodorsal thalamus process intraoral chemosensory signals. Using tetrode recordings in alert rats, our results are the first to show that neurons in the mediodorsal thalamus dynamically represent olfactory and gustatory signals from the mouth. Our findings are consistent with the mediodorsal thalamus being a key node between sensory and prefrontal cortical areas for processing chemosensory information underlying ingestive behavior.

  • behavioral electrophysiology
  • flavor
  • mediodorsal thalamus
  • multimodal
  • odor
  • taste

SfN exclusive license.

View Full Text

Member Log In

Log in using your username and password

Enter your Journal of Neuroscience username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
Forgot your user name or password?

Purchase access

You may purchase access to this article. This will require you to create an account if you don't already have one.
Back to top

In this issue

The Journal of Neuroscience: 42 (43)
Journal of Neuroscience
Vol. 42, Issue 43
26 Oct 2022
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
  • Masthead (PDF)
Email

Thank you for sharing this Journal of Neuroscience article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Neural Representation of Intraoral Olfactory and Gustatory Signals by the Mediodorsal Thalamus in Alert Rats
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Journal of Neuroscience
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in Journal of Neuroscience.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Print
View Full Page PDF
Citation Tools
Neural Representation of Intraoral Olfactory and Gustatory Signals by the Mediodorsal Thalamus in Alert Rats
Kelly E. Fredericksen, Chad L. Samuelsen
Journal of Neuroscience 26 October 2022, 42 (43) 8136-8153; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0674-22.2022

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Respond to this article
Request Permissions
Share
Neural Representation of Intraoral Olfactory and Gustatory Signals by the Mediodorsal Thalamus in Alert Rats
Kelly E. Fredericksen, Chad L. Samuelsen
Journal of Neuroscience 26 October 2022, 42 (43) 8136-8153; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0674-22.2022
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Introduction
    • Materials and Methods
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Keywords

  • behavioral electrophysiology
  • flavor
  • mediodorsal thalamus
  • multimodal
  • odor
  • taste

Responses to this article

Respond to this article

Jump to comment:

No eLetters have been published for this article.

Related Articles

Cited By...

More in this TOC Section

Research Articles

  • The amyloid precursor protein modulates the position and length of the axon initial segment
  • Cortical Parvalbumin-Positive Interneuron Development and Function Are Altered in the APC Conditional Knockout Mouse Model of Infantile and Epileptic Spasms Syndrome
  • Post-synaptic NMDA Receptor Expression Is Required for Visual Corticocollicular Projection Refinement in the Mouse Superior Colliculus
Show more Research Articles

Behavioral/Cognitive

  • Blunted Expected Reward Value Signals in Binge Alcohol Drinkers
  • Disentangling Object Category Representations Driven by Dynamic and Static Visual Input
  • Irrelevant Threats Linger and Affect Behavior in High Anxiety
Show more Behavioral/Cognitive
  • Home
  • Alerts
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Facebook
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on Twitter
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on LinkedIn
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Youtube
  • Follow our RSS feeds

Content

  • Early Release
  • Current Issue
  • Issue Archive
  • Collections

Information

  • For Authors
  • For Advertisers
  • For the Media
  • For Subscribers

About

  • About the Journal
  • Editorial Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
(JNeurosci logo)
(SfN logo)

Copyright © 2023 by the Society for Neuroscience.
JNeurosci Online ISSN: 1529-2401

The ideas and opinions expressed in JNeurosci do not necessarily reflect those of SfN or the JNeurosci Editorial Board. Publication of an advertisement or other product mention in JNeurosci should not be construed as an endorsement of the manufacturer’s claims. SfN does not assume any responsibility for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from or related to any use of any material contained in JNeurosci.