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Time for Taste—A Review of the Early Cerebral Processing of Gustatory Perception

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Chemosensory Perception

Abstract

The first successfully recorded event-related potential (ERP) for taste, one of our basic senses, was published nearly half a century ago. Despite this large time span, surprisingly little is known about the early neural processing of taste perception. Here, we are providing a comprehensive and critical overview of over four decades of research, with a focus on the temporal dimension of cerebral taste processing in healthy humans. For this purpose, we review studies using techniques that permit a high temporal resolution, namely, electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography, ERP, and event-related magnetic fields (ERF). Our current knowledge of taste ERP is interpreted in the context of our understanding of other, nonchemical senses. Gaps in the existing literature are identified and discussed. Finally, we suggest directions for future investigations using gustatory ERP/ERF.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders—NIDCD (R03DC009869) and the Swedish Research Council (2009-2337) awarded to JNL. The authors are grateful to Andrea Lordan for the valuable comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monell Chemical Senses Center, 3500 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Kathrin Ohla & Johan N. Lundström

  2. Institute of Medical Psychology, Charité—University Medicine, Berlin, Germany

    Niko A. Busch

  3. Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt University, Luisenstrasse 56, 10099, Berlin, Germany

    Niko A. Busch

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Johan N. Lundström

  5. Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    Johan N. Lundström

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  1. Kathrin Ohla
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  2. Niko A. Busch
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  3. Johan N. Lundström
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Correspondence to Kathrin Ohla.

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Ohla, K., Busch, N.A. & Lundström, J.N. Time for Taste—A Review of the Early Cerebral Processing of Gustatory Perception. Chem. Percept. 5, 87–99 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12078-011-9106-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12078-011-9106-4

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