Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on August 16, 2006
Chemical Senses 2007 32(1):93-97; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjl023
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Taste Memory Formation: Role of Nucleus Accumbens
Departamento de Neurociencias, Instituto de Fisiología Celular, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal 70-253, 04510 México, DF, México
Correspondence to be sent to: Federico Bermúdez-Rattoni, Departamento de Neurociencias, Instituto de Fisiologia Celular, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Apartado Postal 70-253, 04510 Mexico, DF, Mexico. e-mail: fbermude{at}ifc.unam.mx
| Abstract |
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When a novel taste has been associated with postingestive malaise, animals recognize this taste as aversive. This associative learning is known as conditioned taste aversion. However, when an animal consumes a novel taste and no aversive consequences follow, it becomes recognized as a safe signal, leading to an increase in its consumption in subsequent presentations. In this review, we will discuss the results related to the taste memory formation focusing particularly on the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). The NAcc keeps projections with amygdala, insular cortex, parabrachial nucleus, and nucleus of the solitary tract areas important for taste memory formation. We will review the evidence relating to how the NAcc could be involved in taste memory formation, due to its role in the taste memory trace formation and its role in the association of the conditioned stimulusunconditioned stimulus, and finally the retrieval of taste memory. In this context, we will review the participation of the cholinergic, dopaminergic, and glutamatergic systems in the NAcc during taste memory formation.
Key words: learning, memory formation, nucleus accumbens, taste memory trace