Brain mechanisms of expectation associated with insula and amygdala response to aversive taste: Implications for placebo

Taste memory involves storing information through plasticity changes in the neural network of taste, including the insular cortex (IC) and ventral tegmental area (VTA), a critical provider of dopamine. Although a VTA-IC dopaminergic pathway has been demonstrated, its role to consolidate taste recognition memory remains poorly understood. We found that photostimulation of dopaminergic neurons in the VTA or VTA-IC dopaminergic terminals of TH-Cre mice increases the salience to facilitate consolidation of a novel taste stimulus regardless of its hedonic value, without altering their taste palatability. Importantly, the inhibition of the D1-like receptor into the IC impairs the salience to facilitate consolidation of an aversive taste recognition memory. Finally, our results showed that VTA photostimulation improves the salience to facilitate consolidation of a conditioned taste aversion memory through the D1-like receptor into the IC. It is concluded that the dopamine activity from the VTA into IC is required to increase the salience to facilitate consolidation of a taste recognition memory. Notably, the D1-like receptor activity into the IC is required to consolidate both innate and learned aversive taste memories but not appetitive taste memory.

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Aversive Taste Treatment of Finger and Thumb Sucking

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.78.1.174 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 78 (1) ◽

pp. 174-176

Author(s):

PATRICK C. FRIMAN ◽

VINCENT J. BARONE ◽

EDWARD R. CHRISTOPHERSEN

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Behavior Disorders ◽

Self Esteem ◽

Open Bite ◽

Class Ii Malocclusion ◽

Anterior Open Bite ◽

Child Behavior Problem ◽

Aversive Taste ◽

Thumb Sucking ◽

Infancy And Early Childhood

Thumb sucking is common and adaptive in infancy and early childhood. But when sucking occurs beyond 4 years of age, a common result can be an anterior, open bite that requires expensive orthodontic correction.1 Prolonged sucking may also be a factor in class II malocclusion, narrowing of the dental arches, mucosal trauma, and digital malformation.1-4 In addition to the physical sequelae of sucking, the habit, because it is not socially approved, can generate persistent negative feedback which can adversely affect a child's self-esteem.5 Thumb sucking is a frequently reported child behavior problem that, in some children, can be associated with broader behavior disorders that require treatment.

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The Impact of Childhood Experience on Amygdala Response to Perceptually Familiar Black and White Faces

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_00605 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 26 (9) ◽

pp. 1992-2004 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Jasmin Cloutier ◽

Tianyi Li ◽

Joshua Correll

Keyword(s):

Neural Substrates ◽

Relative Reduction ◽

Childhood Experience ◽

Childhood Exposure ◽

Interracial Contact ◽

Black And White ◽

Race Perception ◽

Amygdala Response ◽

The Impact ◽

Black Faces

Given the well-documented involvement of the amygdala in race perception, the current study aimed to investigate how interracial contact during childhood shapes amygdala response to racial outgroup members in adulthood. Of particular interest was the impact of childhood experience on amygdala response to familiar, compared with novel, Black faces. Controlling for a number of well-established individual difference measures related to interracial attitudes, the results reveal that perceivers with greater childhood exposure to racial outgroup members display greater relative reduction in amygdala response to familiar Black faces. The implications of such findings are discussed in the context of previous investigations into the neural substrates of race perception and in consideration of potential mechanisms by which childhood experience may shape race perception.

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