Cortical representation of taste-modifying action of miracle fruit in humans

Red berries of a tropical plant called miracle fruit, Richadella dulcifica, reduce the sour and aversive taste of acids and add sweet and palatable taste. To elucidate the brain mechanism of this unique action of miracle fruit, we recorded taste-elicited magnetic fields of the human cerebral cortex....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Fla.), 2006-12, Vol.33 (4), p.1145-1151
Main Authors: Yamamoto, Chizuko, Nagai, Hajime, Takahashi, Kayo, Nakagawa, Seiji, Yamaguchi, Masahiko, Tonoike, Mitsuo, Yamamoto, Takashi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acids
Adult
Brain
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
Citric Acid - pharmacology
Experiments
Female
Fruits
Humans
Magnetoencephalography
Male
Medical imaging
Pain
Pilot Projects
Primates
Richadella dulcifica
Sucrose
Sucrose - pharmacology
Synsepalum
Taste - drug effects
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Summary:Red berries of a tropical plant called miracle fruit, Richadella dulcifica, reduce the sour and aversive taste of acids and add sweet and palatable taste. To elucidate the brain mechanism of this unique action of miracle fruit, we recorded taste-elicited magnetic fields of the human cerebral cortex. The initial taste responses were localized in the fronto-parietal opercular/insular cortex reported as the primary taste area. The mean latency of the response to citric acid after chewing miracle fruit was essentially the same as that for sucrose and was 250–300 ms longer than that for citric acid. Since it is known that stimulation with acids after the action of miracle fruit induces both sweetness and sourness responses in the primate taste nerves, the present results suggest that the sourness component of citric acid is greatly diminished at the level of subcortical relays, and mostly sweetness information reaches the cortical primary taste area. We propose the idea that the qualitative aspect of taste is processed in the primary taste area and the affective aspect is represented by the pattern of activation among the different cortical areas.
ISSN:1053-8119
1095-9572
DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.08.009