SynthesisHuman brain mapping2011
Identification of human gustatory cortex by activation likelihood estimation.
Synthesis in Human brain mapping, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 94 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
94 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 196 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review of Obesity and Binge Eating Associated Impairment of the Cognitive Inhibition System.Frontiers in nutrition · 2021Pooled it
- Basal ganglia lateralization in different types of reward.Brain imaging and behavior · 2020Pooled it
- Hunger and BMI modulate neural responses to sweet stimuli: fMRI meta-analysis.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2020Pooled it
- Empirical assessment of changing sample-characteristics in task-fMRI over two decades: An example from gustatory and food studies.Human brain mapping · 2020Pooled it
- A Systematic Review and Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis of fMRI Studies on Sweet Taste in Humans.The Journal of nutrition · 2020Pooled it
- Obesity is associated with reduced orbitofrontal cortex volume: A coordinate-based meta-analysis.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2020Pooled it
- Basic taste processing recruits bilateral anteroventral and middle dorsal insulae: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of fMRI studies.Brain and behavior · 2017Pooled it
- Neural bases of food perception: coordinate-based meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies in multiple modalities.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2014Pooled it
- Taste-related reward is associated with weight loss following bariatric surgery.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2020Trial
- Obesity is associated with altered mid-insula functional connectivity to limbic regions underlying appetitive responses to foods.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2017Trial
- Intranasal insulin increases regional cerebral blood flow in the insular cortex in men independently of cortisol manipulation.Human brain mapping · 2014Trial
- The sum of its parts--effects of gastric distention, nutrient content and sensory stimulation on brain activation.PloS one · 2014Trial
- Effect of replacing sugar with non-caloric sweeteners in beverages on the reward value after repeated exposure.PloS one · 2013Trial
- Music-taste interactions enhance gustatory and sensorimotor brain activity.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Bilateral Gustatory Disturbance Associated With Unilateral Putaminal Hemorrhage: A Case Report and Literature Review.Cureus · 2026Article
- Reinstating motivational states: Electrical signatures of craving and neural mind reading.PloS one · 2026Article
- Lesions involving the insula are associated with reduced appetite and weight loss.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Neural correlates of inhibitory control during a simple food go/no-go task in adolescents varying in familial obesity risk.NeuroImage · 2025Article
- Savoring Satiety: An Exploratory Analysis of the Neural Correlates of Sensory-Specific Satiety.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Neural Mechanisms and Alterations of Sweet Sensing: Insights from Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
34 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Over the last two decades, neuroimaging methods have identified a variety of taste-responsive brain regions. Their precise location, however, remains in dispute. For example, taste stimulation activates areas throughout the insula and overlying operculum, but identification of subregions has been inconsistent. Furthermore, literature reviews and summaries of gustatory brain activations tend to reiterate rather than resolve this ambiguity. Here, we used a new meta-analytic method [activation likelihood estimation (ALE)] to obtain a probability map of the location of gustatory brain activation across 15 studies. The map of activation likelihood values can also serve as a source of independent coordinates for future region-of-interest analyses. We observed significant cortical activation probabilities in: bilateral anterior insula and overlying frontal operculum, bilateral mid dorsal insula and overlying Rolandic operculum, and bilateral posterior insula/parietal operculum/postcentral gyrus, left lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), right medial OFC, pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (prACC) and right mediodorsal thalamus. This analysis confirms the involvement of multiple cortical areas within insula and overlying operculum in gustatory processing and provides a functional "taste map" which can be used as an inclusive mask in the data analyses of future studies. In light of this new analysis, we discuss human central processing of gustatory stimuli and identify topics where increased research effort is warranted.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.