[The neural bases of taste aversion learning: the formation of acquired hedonic taste representations]

Abstract

Introduction: Taste aversion conditioning is a form of associative learning in which certain qualities of a food (mainly its taste) are associated to specific negative visceral consequences that derive from eating it. Establishing this learning depends on gustatory-visceral integration processes carried out in the central nervous system.

Development: In this manuscript our aim is to offer a global view of the centres and connections that play the most significant roles in the formation of taste aversion learning (TAL).

Conclusions: Many researchers consider that the initial level of integration is situated within the parabrachial nuclei. A priori and given the basic vital nature of TAL, its formation and completion could be thought to take place at this brain stem level, without requiring the intervention of the higher processing structures. Nevertheless, in the literature on TAL there is a large body of both neuroanatomical and neurobehavioural evidence that seems to indicate that the formation of TAL requires complex interactions between the parabrachial nuclei and certain prosencephalic structures, such as the insular cortex or the amygdala, among others.