Two scientists from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) – John D. Boughter, Jr., PhD, and Max Fletcher, PhD – have received a five-year $2.27 million grant through the National Institutes of Health for their project entitled “Spatial taste coding in mouse gustatory cortex.”
Their work explores how an important sensory system is organized in the brain and how it works to modify behavioral patterns. Dietary decisions play a vital role in the progression of a number of human conditions (obesity, diabetes, anorexia, hypertension, coronary artery disease, etc.), and arguably the most important factor regulating these decisions is the sense of taste.