| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
To gain insight into how bitter and sweet taste information is translated in the brain into binary responses of emotion, we visualized the neuronal circuitries of bitter and sweet tastes by selectively expressing the fluorescent transneuronal tracer, WGA-DsRed, in either bitter- or sweet-responsive taste receptor cells in mice. The genetic tracing showed segregation of bitter and sweet taste pathways. To functionally characterize the bitter taste-relaying neurons, which were labeled by WGA-DsRed originating from bitter taste receptor cells, we combined genetic tracing with electrophysiological and immunohistochemical analyses, and mapping the induction of the immediate early gene by taste stimuli and aversion-eliciting stimuli from the gut. Our data suggest that the different types of bitter taste-relaying neurons are clustered in distinct locations in the parabrachial nucleus, showing the architectural solution in the parabrachial nucleus that processes taste information.
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