Research over the past decade has established the gustatory insular cortex (GC) as a model for studying how primary sensory cortices integrate sensory, affective, and cognitive signals. This integration occurs through time-varying patterns of neural activity. Selective silencing of GC activity during specific temporal windows provided evidence for GC's role in mediating taste palatability and expectation. Recent results also suggest that this area may play a role in decision making. However, existing data are limited to GC involvement in controlling the timing of stereotyped, orofacial reactions to aversive tastants during consumption. Here, we present electrophysiological, chemogenetic, and optogenetic results demonstrating the key role of GC in the execution of a taste-guided, reward-directed decision-making task. Mice were trained in a two-alternative choice task, in which they had to associate tastants sampled from a central spout with different actions (i.e., licking either a left or a right spout). Stimulus sampling and action were separated by a delay period. Electrophysiological recordings revealed chemosensory processing during the sampling period and the emergence of task-related, cognitive signals during the delay period. Chemogenetic silencing of GC impaired task performance. Optogenetic silencing of GC allowed us to tease apart the contribution of activity during sampling and delay periods. Although silencing during the sampling period had no effect, silencing during the delay period significantly impacted behavioral performance, demonstrating the importance of the cognitive signals processed by GC in driving decision making. Altogether, our data highlight a novel role of GC in controlling taste-guided, reward-directed choices and actions.

中文翻译：

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小鼠味觉岛叶皮层中味觉相关决定的动态表征。

过去十年的研究已经建立了味觉岛叶皮层 (GC) 作为研究初级感觉皮层如何整合感觉、情感和认知信号的模型。这种整合通过随时间变化的神经活动模式发生。在特定时间窗口期间选择性沉默 GC 活动为 GC 在调节口味适口性和期望中的作用提供了证据。最近的结果还表明，该领域可能在决策中发挥作用。然而，现有数据仅限于 GC 参与控制消费期间对令人厌恶的味觉的刻板印象、口面部反应的时间。在这里，我们展示了电生理学、化学遗传学和光遗传学结果，证明了 GC 在执行味觉引导、奖励导向的决策任务中的关键作用。老鼠接受了两种选择任务的训练，其中他们必须将从中央喷口采样的味觉与不同的动作（即，舔左或右喷口）相关联。刺激采样和动作被延迟期分开。电生理记录揭示了采样期间的化学感应处理和延迟期间与任务相关的认知信号的出现。GC 的化学遗传学沉默损害了任务性能。GC 的光遗传学沉默使我们能够梳理出采样和延迟期间活动的贡献。虽然采样期间的沉默没有影响，但延迟期间的沉默显着影响了行为表现，证明了 GC 处理的认知信号在驱动决策中的重要性。共，