Gustatory Cortex - Responsiveness To Changes in Concentration

Responsiveness To Changes in Concentration

Studies using the Gustatory cortex of the rat model have shown that GC neurons exhibit complex responses to changes in concentration of tastant. For one tastant, the same neuron might increase its firing rate whereas for another tastant, it may only be responsive to an intermediate concentration. Studies have shown that few chemosensory GC neurons. In these studies it was evident that few chemosensory GC neurons monotonically increased or decreased their firing rates in response to changes in concentration of tastants (such as MSG, NaCl, and sucrose), the vast majority of them responded to concentration changes in a complex manner. In such instances with several concentration tastants tested, the middle concentration might evoke the highest firing rate (like 0.1 M sucrose), or the highest and lowest concentrations might elicit the highest rates (NaCl ), or the neuron might respond to only one concentration.