Critical role of insular cortex in taste but not odour aversion memory.

Desgranges Bertrand, Sevelinges Yannick, Bonnefond Mathilde, Lévy Frédéric, Ravel Nadine, Ferreira Guillaume
European Journal of Neuroscience. 2009-04-01; 29(8): 1654-1662
DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2009.06711.x

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1. Eur J Neurosci. 2009 Apr;29(8):1654-62. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2009.06711.x.

Critical role of insular cortex in taste but not odour aversion memory.

Desgranges B(1), Sevelinges Y, Bonnefond M, Lévy F, Ravel N, Ferreira G.

Author information:
(1)Laboratoire de Comportement, Neurobiologie et Adaptation, CNRS UMR6175, INRA
UMR85, Université Tours, F-37380 Nouzilly, France.

Erratum in
Eur J Neurosci. 2009 Jun;29(12):2435. Bertrand, Desgranges [corrected to
Desgranges, Bertrand]; Yannick, Sevelinges [corrected to Sevelinges, Yannick];
Mathilde, Bonnefond [corrected to Bonnefond, Mathilde]; Frédéric, Lévy [corrected
to Lévy, Frédéric]; Nadine, Ravel [corrected to Ravel,.

Conditioned odour aversion (COA) and conditioned taste aversion (CTA) result from
the association of a novel odour or a novel taste with delayed visceral illness.
The insular cortex (IC) is crucial for CTA memory, and the present experiments
sought to determine whether the IC is required for the formation and the
retrieval of COA memory as it is for CTA. We first demonstrated that ingested
odour is as effective as taste for single-trial aversion learning in rats
conditioned in their home cage. COA, like CTA, tolerates long intervals between
the ingested stimuli and the illness and is long-lasting. Transient inactivation
of the IC during acquisition spared COA whereas it greatly impaired CTA.
Similarly, blockade of protein synthesis in IC did not affect COA but prevented
CTA consolidation. Moreover, IC inactivation before retrieval tests did not
interfere with COA memory expression when performed either 2 days (recent memory)
or 36 days after acquisition (remote memory). Similar IC inactivation impaired
the retrieval of either recent or remote CTA memory. Altogether these findings
indicate that the IC is not necessary for aversive odour memory whereas it is
essential for acquisition, consolidation and retrieval of aversive taste memory.
We propose that the chemosensory stimulations modulate IC recruitment during the
formation and the retrieval of food aversive memory.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2009.06711.x
PMID: 19419428 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

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