Inhibitory gating of thalamocortical inputs onto rat gustatory insular cortex.

In primary gustatory cortex (GC), a subregion of the insular cortex, neurons show anticipatory activity, encode taste identity and palatability, and their activity is related to decision making. Inactivation of the gustatory thalamus, the parvicellular region of the ventral posteromedial thalamic nucleus (VPMpc), dramatically reduces GC taste responses, consistent with the hypothesis that VPMpc-GC projections carry taste information. Recordings in awake rodents reported that taste responsive neurons can be found across GC, without segregated spatial mapping, raising the possibility that projections from the taste thalamus may activate GC broadly. In addition, we have shown that cortical inhibition modulates the integration of thalamic and limbic inputs, revealing a potential role for GABA transmission in gating sensory information to GC. Despite this wealth of information at the system level, the synaptic organization of the VPMpc-GC circuit has not been investigated. Here, we used optogenetic activation of VPMpc afferents to GC in acute slice preparations from rats of both sexes to investigate the synaptic properties and organization of VPMpc afferents in GC and their modulation by cortical inhibition. We hypothesized that VPMpc-GC synapses are distributed across GC, but show laminar- and cell-specific properties, conferring computationally flexibility to how taste information is processed. We also found that VPMpc-GC synaptic responses are strongly modulated by the activity regime of VPMpc afferents, as well as by cortical inhibition activating GABA A and GABA B receptors onto VPMpc terminals. These results provide a novel insight into the complex features of thalamocortical circuits for taste processing. Significance Statement We report that the input from the primary taste thalamus to the primary gustatory cortex (GC) shows distinct properties compared to primary thalamocortical synapses onto other sensory areas. VPMpc afferents in GC make synapses with excitatory neurons distributed across all cortical layers and display frequency-dependent short-term plasticity to repetitive stimulation, thus they do not fit the classic distinction between drivers and modulators typical of other sensory thalamocortical circuits. Thalamocortical activation of GC is gated by cortical inhibition, providing local corticothalamic feedback via presynaptic ionotropic and metabotropic GABA receptors. The connectivity and inhibitory control of thalamocortical synapses in GC highlight unique features of the thalamocortical circuit for taste.