FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING ASSESSMENT OF THE CORTICAL REPRESENTATION OF ORAL VISCOSITY

Viscosity, taste and aroma are key attributes of food. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is increasingly used to investigate the cortical brain response to taste and aroma; however hitherto, the response to food viscosity has been the subject of only one fMRI study. This study aims to investigate the cortical response to oral viscosity in humans using wide brain coverage and multi-echo acquisition techniques to improve sensitivity across a range of brain regions to confirm and extend previous findings. The stimulus used was an alginate gel compared to a water control. Activation was detected by group analysis in the right postcentral gyrus/somatosensory cortex, in the right rolandic operculum/parietal operculum cortex and in a more anterior part of the left insula. No activation was detected in the orbitofrontal cortex.