Synaptic encoding of gustatory information

The primary function of the sensory cortex is to analyze incoming stimuli from the periphery, distinguishing and interpreting them to guide behavior. Among sensory stimuli, gustatory information enables animals to analyze the food identity and recognize the nutrition and hedonic values (e.g., palatable as sucrose, versus aversive as citric acid) to avoid poisons and regulate feeding behaviors, making it crucial for survival. Despite the importance of gustatory processing, our knowledge of the underlying neuronal circuits and their activity remains remarkably incomplete, especially compared to other sensory modalities (e.g., somatosensation, vision, olfaction, and audition). Here, we employ a combination of slice electrophysiology, optogenetics, and activity reporters to characterize synaptic inputs arriving onto the gustatory cortex from the gustatory thalamus (provides information regarding tastant identity) and amygdala (hedonic value). We aim to disentangle how gustatory information is integrated and processed in the mouse gustatory cortex at the synaptic and circuit level.