The neural code for taste in the nucleus of the solitary tract of the rat: effects of adaptation

Adaptation of the tongue to NaCl, HCl, quinine or sucrose was used as a tool to study the stability and organization of response profiles in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS). Taste responses in the NTS were recorded in anesthetized rats before and after adaptation of the tongue to NaCl, HCl, sucrose or quinine. Results showed that the magnitude of response to test stimuli following adaptation was a function of the context, i.e., adaptation condition, in which the stimuli were presented. Over half of all taste responses were either attenuated or enhanced following the adaptation procedure: NaCl adaptation produced the most widespread, non-stimulus-selective cross-adaptation and sucrose adaptation produced the least frequent cross-adaptation and the most frequent enhancement of taste responses. Adaptation to quinine cross-adapted to sucrose and adaptation to HCl cross-adapted to quinine in over half of the units tested. The adaptation procedure sometimes unmasked taste responses where none were present beforehand and sometimes altered taste responses to test stimuli even though the adapting stimulus did not itself produce a response. These effects demonstrated a form of context-dependency of taste responsiveness in the NTS and further suggest a broad potentiality in the sensitivity of NTS units across taste stimuli. Across unit patterns of response remained distinct from each other under all adaptation conditions. Discriminability of these patterns may provide a neurophysiological basis for residual psychophysical abilities following adaptation.