Parabrachial Calca Neurons Influence Aversive and Appetitive Taste Function

Trigeminal neurons convey somatosensory information from craniofacial tissues. In mouse brain, ascending projections from medullary trigeminal neurons arrive at taste neurons in the parabrachial (PB) nucleus, suggesting that taste neurons participate in somatosensory processing. However, the cell types that support this convergence were undefined. Using Cre-directed optogenetics and in vivo neurophysiology in anesthetized mice of both sexes, here we studied whether transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1)-lineage nociceptive and thermosensory fibers are primary neurons that drive trigeminal circuits reaching PB taste cells. We monitored spiking activity in individual PB neurons during photoexcitation of the terminals of TRPV1-lineage fibers arriving at the dorsal trigeminal nucleus caudalis, which relays orofacial somatosensory messages to the PB area. We also recorded PB neural responses to oral delivery of taste, chemesthetic, and thermal stimuli. We found that optical excitation of TRPV1-lineage fibers elicited responses in traditionally defined taste neurons in lateral PB nuclei. The tuning of neurons across diverse tastes associated with their sensitivity to TRPV1-lineage fiber stimulation, which only sparingly engaged neurons oriented to preferred tastes like sucrose. Moreover, neurons responsive to photostimulation of TRPV1-lineage afferents showed strong responses to temperature including noxious heat, which predominantly excited PB bitter taste cells. Multivariate and machine learning analyses revealed the PB confluence of TRPV1-lineage signals with taste captured sensory valence information shared across aversive gustatory, nociceptive, and thermal stimuli. Our results reveal that TRPV1-lineage fibers, which have defined roles in thermosensation and pain, communicate with PB taste neurons. This multisensory convergence supports dependencies between gustatory and somatosensory hedonic representations in the brain.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The parabrachial (PB) nucleus participates in autonomic and integrative neural processing for diverse sensory modalities. We recently found in mice that trigeminal neurons supplying craniofacial somatosensation project to PB neurons sensitive to tastes. Here, we show that trigeminal projections to PB gustatory cells are driven by a genetic class of thermosensory and nociceptive fiber. Input from these fibers was associated with PB neural sensitivity to aversive oral temperatures and tastes and supported a multimodal neural representation of sensory valence across gustatory, nociceptive, and thermal stimuli. These results reveal gustation and somatosensation to be only components of a larger PB code that captures sensory value. Defining this circuit has implications for understanding the neural representation of taste, temperature, and also pain-related phenomena.

This study investigates, in the anesthetized rat, the dendritic extent of parabrachial (PB) neurons whose nociceptive response to noxious stimuli has been previously recorded with an extracellular micropipette. The PB neurons were then injected with biocytin through the recording micropipette, via a juxtacellular technique. The dendritic arborization of individual PB neurons was carefully compared with the projections of medullary (trigeminal) and spinal lamina I neurons. The latter projections were labeled in separate animals that received injections of Phaseolus vulgaris-leucoagglutinin restricted to the superficial layers of spinal or medullary dorsal horn. We report here that: 1) PB neurons excited chiefly by noxious stimulation of the face have their dendritic tree located primarily within the field of lamina I trigeminal projections, i.e., in the caudal portion of PB area, around the external medial and the caudal part of the external lateral subnuclei; and 2) PB neurons excited chiefly by noxious stimulation of the paw or the tail have their dendritic tree located primarily within the field of lamina I spinal projections, i.e., in PB mid-extent, around the borderline between the external lateral and both the lateral crescent and the superior lateral subnuclei. Our results suggest the presence of an extensive excitatory axodendritic link between lamina I projections and PB nociceptive neurons around the lateral crescent and the external medial subnuclei. These findings strengthen the possibility of involvement of a subgroup of PB neurons in nociceptive processes.

The parabrachial (PB) complex mediates both ascending nociceptive signaling and descending pain modulatory information in the affective/emotional pain pathway. We have recently reported that chronic pain is associated with amplified activity of PB neurons in a rat model of neuropathic pain. Here we demonstrate that similar activity amplification occurs in mice, and that this is related to suppressed inhibition to lateral parabrachial (LPB) neurons from the CeA in animals of either sex. Animals with pain after chronic constriction injury of the infraorbital nerve (CCI-Pain) displayed higher spontaneous and evoked activity in PB neurons, and a dramatic increase in after-discharges, responses that far outlast the stimulus, compared with controls. LPB neurons in CCI-Pain animals showed a reduction in inhibitory, GABAergic inputs. We show that, in both rats and mice, LPB contains few GABAergic neurons, and that most of its GABAergic inputs arise from CeA. These CeA GABA neurons express dynorphin, somatostatin, and/or corticotropin releasing hormone. We find that the efficacy of this CeA-LPB pathway is suppressed in chronic pain. Further, optogenetically stimulating this pathway suppresses acute pain, and inhibiting it, in naive animals, evokes pain behaviors. These findings demonstrate that the CeA-LPB pathway is critically involved in pain regulation, and in the pathogenesis of chronic pain.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We describe a novel pathway, consisting of inhibition by dynorphin, somatostatin, and corticotropin-releasing hormone-expressing neurons in the CeA that project to the parabrachial nucleus. We show that this pathway regulates the activity of pain-related neurons in parabrachial nucleus, and that, in chronic pain, this inhibitory pathway is suppressed, and that this suppression is causally related to pain perception. We propose that this amygdalo-parabrachial pathway is a key regulator of both chronic and acute pain, and a novel target for pain relief.

Bitter-responsive brainstem neurons: Characteristics and functions

Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons in the hypothalamus play a role in both the control of metabolic state and sexual behavior. Along with the fast neurotransmitters glutamate and/or GABA, POMC neurons secrete cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) and products of the POMC gene, including β-endorphin and α-melanocortin stimulating hormone (α-MSH). Published data from our lab demonstrate a lack of sexual interest in male mice when both the leptin receptor and insulin receptor are deleted from POMC neurons. Furthermore, this absence of interest correlates with a decrease in the POMC product α-MSH. However, it is not known whether these effects correspond to an increase in POMC neural activation. We hypothesized that activation of POMC neurons in male mice would lead to improved sexual interest. We have crossed mice with cre-dependent expression of the excitatory designer receptor, hM3Dq, with mice expressing cre under control of the POMC promoter. When these mice are administered intraperitoneal clozapine-N-oxide (CNO), POMC neurons exhibit increased activation. We completed a comprehensive mating analysis to measure the sexual desire and erectile and ejaculatory capabilities of these male mice under CNO or saline administration. Additionally, we sacrificed the mice after injection of CNO or saline to perform immunostaining for the protein c-fos as an indicator of neural activation. As expected, activation of POMC neurons with CNO increased c-fos expression, while the impact on male sexual interest was more nuanced. These experiments emphasize the need to investigate the specific neuropeptide and transmitter output by POMC neurons that influences sexual behavior and function.

Cortical neurochemical signaling of gustatory stimuli and their visceral consequences during the acquisition and consolidation of taste aversion memory

Differential involvement of central cholinergic mechanisms in the aversive stimulus properties of morphine and amphetamine.

In a behavioral experiment, rats reliably acquired a taste aversion to non-preferred 0.01 M HCl that had been previously paired with intraperitoneal injection of 0.15 M LiCl. These rats showed aversions to other acidic solutions such as malic acid and tartaric acid. In a neurophysiological experiment, the neuronal activities of the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) were recorded after the acquisition of conditioned taste aversion (CTA) to 0.01 M HCl in urethane-anesthetized rats. Neuronal responses to the conditioned stimulus (CS) did not change on the whole but decreased in the dorsal region to the brachium conjunctivum. The proportion of HCl-best to NaCl-best units was lower in the CTA group than in controls. The spontaneous firing rate was lower in the CTA group than in controls. Correlation coefficients between the HCl CS and normally preferred tastes (sucrose and NaCl) were more negative and those between HCl and quinine were more positive in the CTA group than in the controls. These results may be explained by the notion that gustatory responses of PBN neurons are concerned with alterations in taste hedonics after the acquisition of conditioned taste aversions.

Altered processing of rewarding and aversive basic taste stimuli in symptomatic women with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa: An fMRI study

Objective: Taste is an important sense for humans, but research on taste sensation is currently limited. Clinical evaluations of taste rely on subjective reports, and there are currently no objective evaluations available. In this study, we consider the possibility of objectively evaluating taste by measuring prefrontal cortex activity with functional near-infrared spectroscopy during taste stimulation with sweet, salty, sour, and bitter taste stimuli. Methods: We recruited 6 male and 3 female healthy adult volunteers to participate in this study. Taste solutions or distilled water (as a control) were dropped onto the tongue using a dropper. The degree of discomfort in response to the taste solution was evaluated on a visual analog scale. Results: We observed no significant differences between stimuli on any spectroscopy channel (P>0.05). We observed no reductions in oxyhemoglobin levels with the sweet stimuli, but progressively greater reductions with salty, sour, and bitter stimuli. We observed that responses to sour (P<0.05) and bitter (P<0.01) stimuli were significantly different from those to control at channel 1. We found a negative correlation between visual analog scale scores and minimum oxyhemoglobin levels (r=-0.641, P<0.01). Conclusions: Our measurements of prefrontal cortex activity with near-infrared spectroscopy suggest it may be a useful objective evaluation of taste stimulation.

Medial versus lateral parabrachial nucleus lesions in the rat: Effects on mercaptoacetate-induced feeding and conditioned taste aversion

Electrolytic lesions of the parabrachial nuclei (PBN) disrupt conditioned taste aversion (CTA) in the rat, but it is not known whether this effect is due to damaging axons of passage or to destruction of intrinsic neurons. We tested 10 rats with electrophysiologically guided, ibotenic acid lesions of the PBN (PBNx) to determine whether they could acquire a LiCl-induced CTA to l-alanine (0.3 M) or demonstrate a sodium appetite following furosemide treatment and overnight access to sodium deficient chow. Vehicle-treated and nonsurgical controls were included in the design. PBNx rats failed to develop a CTA, even after 3 conditioning trials. Moreover, more than 8 months later, a subset of the PBNx rats were again unable to learn a CTA using NaCl as the conditional stimulus (CS). After the furosemide treatment, the control rats drank an average of 20.3 ml of strong salt in 24 hr. The PBNx rats drank virtually no NaCl during the first 2 hr and averaged only 4.0 ml in 24 hr. In the PBN, damage to neuronal somata is more critical than interrupting fibers of passage for producing deficits in taste-guided behaviors.

Effects of exposure to novel taste stimuli on taste aversive conditioning (TAC) in rats / Efectos de la exposición a estímulos gustativos novedosos sobre el condicionamiento aversivo a sabores (CAS) en ratas

Taste processing is an adaptive mechanism involving complex physiological, motivational and cognitive processes. Animal models have provided relevant data about the neuroanatomical and neurobiological components of taste processing. From these models, two important domains of taste responses are described in this review. The first part focuses on the neuroanatomical and neurophysiological bases of olfactory and taste processing. The second part describes the biological and behavioral characteristics of taste learning, with an emphasis on conditioned taste aversion as a key process for the survival and health of many species, including humans.

THE SENSE OF TASTE AND BEHAVIOR