Neural correlates of habituation to taste stimuli in healthy women

Wagner, Angela; Aizenstein, Howard; Frank, Guido K.; Figurski, Jennifer; May, J. Christopher; Putnam, Karen; Fischer, Lorie; Bailer, Ursula F.; Henry, Shannan E.; McConaha, Claire; Vogel, Victoria; Kaye, Walter H.

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2005.11.005

« Previous Next »Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Volume 147, Issue 1 , Pages 57-67, 30 June 2006

Neural correlates of habituation to taste stimuli in healthy women

Angela Wagner
- University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
- University of Mannheim, Central Institute of Mental Health, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Mannheim, Germany
Howard Aizenstein
- University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Guido K. Frank
- University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
- University of California, San Diego, Department of Psychiatry, La Jolla, California, United States
Jennifer Figurski
- University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
J. Christopher May
- Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, PA, United States
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Karen Putnam
- University of Cincinnati, School of Medicine, Department of Environmental Health, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Lorie Fischer
- University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Ursula F. Bailer
- University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
- Medical University of Vienna, Department of General Psychiatry, University Hospital of Psychiatry, Vienna, Austria
Shannan E. Henry
- University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Claire McConaha
- University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Victoria Vogel
- University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Walter H. Kaye
- University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
- Corresponding author. University of Pittsburgh, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Iroquois Building, Suite 600, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States. Tel.: +1 412 647 9845; fax: +1 412 647 9740.

Received 14 January 2005; received in revised form 30 August 2005; accepted 8 November 2005.

Abstract

Recent studies show that specific regions of the cortex contribute to modulation of appetitive behaviors. The purpose of this study was to determine whether neural response in these regions changes over time when a taste stimulus is administered repeatedly. Such a paradigm may be useful for determining whether altered habituation contributes to disturbed eating behavior. This study used a programmable syringe pump to compare administration of a 10% sucrose solution to distilled water in 11 healthy female subjects using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The stimuli were presented in either a sequential or pseudorandom order. An a priori ‘Region of Interest’ (ROI) based analysis method was used, with ROIs defined in the prefrontal cortex, insula, amygdala, and hippocampus. To test habituation, activation during the first half of each block was compared with activation during the second half. For the pseudorandom blocks, subjects showed habituation in almost all ROIs to water, but in none to sucrose. By contrast, for sequential blocks, both stimuli produced habituation in taste-related brain regions. These data suggest that habituation patterns in healthy subjects may depend on frequency and regularity of stimulus administration.

Keywords: Taste, Habituation, fMRI, Amygdala, Insula, Eating disorder