Figure 4.

Time course of palatability representations in the two groups of palatability-responsive neurons. A, Each intensity plot shows the time course of significant correlations between neural responses and taste palatability for one of the two clusters of neurons identified in Figure 3C. Individual neurons are plotted in separate rows; asterisks denote neurons with inhibitory responses. Positive correlations (stronger responses to sucrose) are shown in shades of red, negative correlations (stronger responses to quinine) are shown in shades of blue, and nonsignificant correlations are shown in green. The magnitude of the correlation is indicated by the pixel intensity. B, The raw correlation with palatability as a function of time from taste delivery, averaged across all palatable-preferring (red) and aversive-preferring (blue) neurons. Error bars denote SDs. The dashed line is centered on zero. C, Histogram comparing the palatability correlation functions of 10 (of the 12) “taste specificity-only” neurons with those of the palatable- or aversive-preferring neurons. Positive r_p − r_a values indicate greater similarity with the palatable-preferring group.