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Why might food seem appealing in one state of mind and less enticing in another? New UConn research offers insight into how the brain systems that regulate alertness and stress may reshape how taste is represented in the brain.

In a study published in Cell Reports, researchers in the lab of Natale Sciolino, an assistant professor in the department of physiology and neurobiology, found that activating a small brainstem region called the locus coeruleus changed how groups of neurons in the mouse gustatory cortex represented taste.

The locus coeruleus, or LC, is a major source of norepinephrine in the brain. Also called noradrenaline, this chemical messenger helps regulate arousal, attention and responses to stress. The gustatory insular cortex processes information about taste, including its identity, intensity and palatability—how appealing or aversive it is.

Scientists have long known that internal states such as illness and arousal can influence sensory processing. Until now, however, researchers had not directly tested how LC activity affects taste coding across populations of neurons in the gustatory cortex.

To investigate that connection, the team used optogenetics, a technique that allowed them to activate norepinephrine-producing LC neurons using light. Miniature microscopes recorded activity in the gustatory cortex of awake mice as taste stimuli were delivered through intraoral cannulas. The researchers then used computational analyses to identify patterns in the resulting neural activity.

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