Mapping Fos-immunoreactive neurons activated by intra-oral infusion of quinine, sucrose or water throughout the brain of B6 mice

Mapping Fos-immunoreactive neurons activated by intra-oral infusion of quinine, sucrose or water throughout the brain of B6 mice | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Mapping Fos-immunoreactive neurons activated by intra-oral infusion of quinine, sucrose or water throughout the brain of B6 mice Michael S. King, Lianyi Lu, Max L. Fletcher, John D. Boughter This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8535054/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 21 Mar, 2026 Read the published version in Brain Structure and Function → Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Fos immunohistochemistry was used to identify neurons in taste-related brain areas throughout the B6 mouse brain activated by intra-oral (IO) infusion of 3.0 mM quinine hydrochloride (Q), 1.0 M sucrose (S) or filtered water (W). IO infusion of Q and S elicited more Fos-immunoreactive (Fos-IR) neurons than W in the central medial (CM) and dorsomedial (DM) subareas of the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) and the central medial (CeM) amygdala (ps < 0.05). Infusion of Q led to more Fos expression than W in the central lateral (CL) PBN and the parvocellular reticular formation (PCRT; ps < 0.05). The only area where IO infusion of Q and S elicited a different number of Fos-IR neurons was the PCRT which responded more to Q (p < 0.05). Cluster analysis of the number of Fos-IR neurons in all 29 taste-related nuclei and subareas examined revealed that populations of neurons distributed among these brain regions respond best to Q, S or both Q and S. Specifically, the Q-best cluster included more posterior structures like the nucleus of the solitary tract, RT and most of the PBN. The S-best cluster included more anterior structures like the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal cortex. And, the cluster of areas that responded better to Q and S than W included the amygdala, gustatory and piriform cortices and a few PBN subareas. Therefore, the data suggest that collections of neurons among taste-responsive brain areas are important for distinguishing Q and S from water as well as identifying the specific tastant. amygdala gustatory nucleus of the solitary tract parabrachial nucleus reticular formation taste Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 21 Mar, 2026 Read the published version in Brain Structure and Function → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 29 Jan, 2026 Reviews received at journal 29 Jan, 2026 Reviews received at journal 28 Jan, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Jan, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 07 Jan, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 07 Jan, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 07 Jan, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 07 Jan, 2026 First submitted to journal 06 Jan, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8535054","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":570985788,"identity":"95230932-50d3-4a4f-889e-ecc9e9598b2d","order_by":0,"name":"Michael S. 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IO infusion of Q and S elicited more Fos-immunoreactive (Fos-IR) neurons than W in the central medial (CM) and dorsomedial (DM) subareas of the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) and the central medial (CeM) amygdala (ps\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05). Infusion of Q led to more Fos expression than W in the central lateral (CL) PBN and the parvocellular reticular formation (PCRT; ps\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05). The only area where IO infusion of Q and S elicited a different number of Fos-IR neurons was the PCRT which responded more to Q (p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05). Cluster analysis of the number of Fos-IR neurons in all 29 taste-related nuclei and subareas examined revealed that populations of neurons distributed among these brain regions respond best to Q, S or both Q and S. Specifically, the Q-best cluster included more posterior structures like the nucleus of the solitary tract, RT and most of the PBN. 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