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Retronasal Olfaction
Published in Alan R. Hirsch, Nutrition and Sensation, 2023
Jason J. Gruss, Alan R. Hirsch
The olfactory bulb has two main connections. First, it is linked directly to the primary olfactory cortex. This is unique. All other sensory modalities route through the thalamus. The primary olfactory cortex is found at the junction of the anterior-medial temporal lobe and the ventral-posterior frontal lobe. The primary olfactory cortex connects to several other cortical areas: thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, entorhinal cortex, and the first-degree gustatory cortex—explaining why food odors stimulate gustatory centers and thus influence taste perception (Boesveldt, Albrecht, Gerber, Negoias, Hummel, and Lundstrom 2010). Moreover, the orbital network in the prefrontal cortex integrates sensations of olfaction, gustation, visceral, visual, and somatosensory for judgment of food (Price 2008). However, the neuroanatomical structures activated varied, depending on route of odor presentation. Orthonasal olfaction preferentially enhanced discharge of the insula and amygdala whenever retronasal olfaction induced greater activation of the anterior cingulate cortex (Spetter, Bender, Hummel, Negoias, Veldhuizen, and Small 2011).
Anatomy of the head and neck
Published in Helen Whitwell, Christopher Milroy, Daniel du Plessis, Forensic Neuropathology, 2021
The thalamus relays this sensory information to the primary sensory cortex. Other regions of the cortex have developed special sensory roles. The occipital lobe contains the visual cortex whereas the temporal lobe is responsible for olfactory and auditory sensations. A specialist area of the frontal lobe and the adjacent anterior part of the insula is the gustatory cortex. This processes information from taste receptors of the tongue and pharynx.
Basic Learning Processes and Eating Behavior
Published in Emily Crews Splane, Neil E. Rowland, Anaya Mitra, Psychology of Eating, 2019
Emily Crews Splane, Neil E. Rowland, Anaya Mitra
The brain stem nucleus of the solitary tract (NST) and the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) are the first and second brain relay nuclei, respectively, for taste and gastrointestinal information. Rats with lesions to the PBN do not acquire conditioned taste aversions despite their demonstrated capacity to maintain the ability to process taste and visceral information. And, any previously learned taste aversion is abolished by a lesion to this region. The association between taste and gastrointestinal information occurs in the PBN and not in the NST, an integration that is seemingly necessary for the formation of conditioned taste aversion. Taste and gastrointestinal information from the PBN relay to the medial thalamus, and then to the gustatory insular cortex in the frontal cortex. In parallel fashion, the same information projects from the PBN to the amygdala. Severe damage to the gustatory insular cortex (or gustatory cortex), the medial thalamus, or areas within the amygdala (specifically, the basolateral amygdala) can prevent a human or animal from forming a conditioned taste aversion or from retaining the learned association. Although many other regions are likely involved (e.g., hypothalamic nuclei), as the brain circuitry of eating behavior is complex and involves multiple pathways, the PBN, medial thalamus, basolateral amygdala, and gustatory insular cortex are of particular importance for the formation and maintenance of conditioned taste aversions (Yamamoto, 2006; Yamamoto et al., 1994).
Is the pharmacological management of bulimia nervosa plausible?
Published in Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy, 2020
A complex interplay exists between emotion regulation and cognitive control. Emotions affect attention, drive cognitive bias, and may interrupt proper decision-making, while attention to specific goals can control emotions and override strong feelings [4]. Control of food cravings is thought to involve prefrontal cortical areas, whereas greater caloric intake has been related to higher activation in the gustatory cortex and brain regions for reward computation. Studies in BN found reduced prefrontal cortical activity when viewing food pictures, hypoactivity in brain areas involved in self-regulation and impulse control, such as prefrontal cortex or insula, and positive correlations between negative affect and striatal brain response during food anticipation [3]. Altogether, research suggests altered brain function related to emotion regulation in BN, but the literature is small.
Neural correlates of the healthiness evaluation processes of food labels
Published in Nutritional Neuroscience, 2018
M. Prevost, P. Hot, L. Muller, B. Ruffieux, E. Cousin, C. Pichat, M. Baciu
Confirming this idea, and contrary to our hypotheses, no difference in terms of cerebral activation was observed between TL and GDA. The colored conditions did not activate more emotional regions. The insula was activated with both labels, but was not more activated in the colored condition. If some emotional heuristics were used as mental shortcuts to this effortful arithmetic processing, there was no indication of it in the brain regions activated for many pieces of information in both conditions. However, for 1 piece of colored nutritional information, participant did not recruit these arithmetic regions. Rather, they used the same regions as the one used to indicate the color of the vignette in the control condition. Thus, individuals might have used some heuristics as mental shortcut to process colored nutritional information when there was only 1 piece of information by simplifying the task to a color recognition task. By mental shortcut, we mean here that participants did not try to process all available information since they did not process nutrient names (as in the control condition where nutrients names were not displayed). Since trying to process all available information is often described as an analytic processing,7,42,43 we identified participants’ processing of 1 piece of colored information as heuristic. But, since the primary gustatory cortex (the insula) was not activated in this condition, we propose that this mental shortcut might not have been driven by emotions. In using this heuristic, participants removed from their mental models the meaning attached to the stimuli as food products. For all other conditions, the insula was systematically activated, suggesting that food representation could have been at least processed during the task.23,44 For many, this emotional aspect of food has been thought of as pervasive and automatically processed,45–47 occurring before any aspect of healthiness is processed.48 We showed here that it might be possible to bypass this process and remove its influence, if any, in the evaluation of food healthiness when using one single colored piece of information that will guide individuals’ behaviors.