Skip Navigation



Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on February 9, 2005
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhi038
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
15/10/1602    most recent
bhi038v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Simmons, W. K.
Right arrow Articles by Barsalou, L. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Simmons, W. K.
Right arrow Articles by Barsalou, L. W.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Article

Pictures of Appetizing Foods Activate Gustatory Cortices for Taste and Reward

W. Kyle Simmons 1, Alex Martin 2, and Lawrence W. Barsalou 1*

1 Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
2 Cognitive Neuropsychology Section, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Lawrence W. Barsalou, E-mail: barsalou{at}emory.ed


  Abstract

Increasing research indicates that concepts are represented as distributed circuits of property information across the brain's modality-specific areas. The current study examines the distributed representation of an important but under-explored category, foods. Participants viewed pictures of appetizing foods (along with pictures of locations for comparison) during event-related fMRI. Compared to location pictures, food pictures activated the right insula/operculum and the left orbitofrontal cortex, both gustatory processing areas. Food pictures also activated regions of visual cortex that represent object shape. Together these areas contribute to a distributed neural circuit that represents food knowledge. Not only does this circuit become active during the tasting of actual foods, it also becomes active while viewing food pictures. Via the process of pattern completion, food pictures activate gustatory regions of the circuit to produce conceptual inferences about taste. Consistent with theories that ground knowledge in the modalities, these inferences arise as reenactments of modality-specific processing.

Keywords: concepts; fMRI; insula/operculum; knowledge; orbitofrontal cortex.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Phil Trans R Soc BHome page
L. W. Barsalou
Simulation, situated conceptualization, and prediction
Phil Trans R Soc B, May 12, 2009; 364(1521): 1281 - 1289.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
D. H. Baker and E. W. Graf
Natural images dominate in binocular rivalry
PNAS, March 31, 2009; 106(13): 5436 - 5441.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
M. Kiefer, E.-J. Sim, B. Herrnberger, J. Grothe, and K. Hoenig
The Sound of Concepts: Four Markers for a Link between Auditory and Conceptual Brain Systems
J. Neurosci., November 19, 2008; 28(47): 12224 - 12230.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Phil Trans R Soc BHome page
E. T Rolls
Brain mechanisms underlying flavour and appetite
Phil Trans R Soc B, July 29, 2006; 361(1471): 1123 - 1136.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
R. F. Goldberg, C. A. Perfetti, and W. Schneider
Perceptual knowledge retrieval activates sensory brain regions.
J. Neurosci., May 3, 2006; 26(18): 4917 - 4921.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
R. Gutierrez, J. M. Carmena, M. A. L. Nicolelis, and S. A. Simon
Orbitofrontal Ensemble Activity Monitors Licking and Distinguishes Among Natural Rewards
J Neurophysiol, January 1, 2006; 95(1): 119 - 133.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.