Abstract
The aim of this work is to examine the clinical findings of patients with taste disorders due to central lesions and also to study the central gustatory pathway in humans. We conducted a retrospective review of 13 patients with central taste disorders that visited Nihon University Itabashi Hospital. An additional 25 cases with central taste disorders previously reported in the literature were assessed in the study. We examined 38 patients with taste disorders due to central lesions. The sites of the central lesions and their frequencies, the laterality of taste disorders relative to the central lesions, and prognosis of taste disorders were studied. We identified the following taste-related regions in the central nervous system: the medulla, pons, midbrain, thalamus, internal capsule, putamen, corona radiata, and cerebral cortex. As for the laterality of the taste disorders, we observed more ipsilateral cases for lesions located from the medulla to the pons. We observed ipsilateral, contralateral, and bilateral cases for lesions located above the midbrain, but bilateral cases were more frequently detected. Taste disorders of 80% of the patients improved by 24 weeks. The prognoses of central taste disorders appeared to be good. We identified eight central regions supposed to be relate to taste disorders. From the laterality of the taste disorders relative to the central lesions, it was suggested that the central gustatory pathway ascends ipsilaterally from the medulla to the pons, branches at the upper pons, and then ascends bilaterally from the midbrain to the cerebral cortex.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hamada N, Endo S, Tomita H (2002) Characteristics of 2,278 patients visiting the Nihon University Hospital Taste Clinic over a 10-year period with special reference to age and sex distribution. Acta Otolaryngol 546:7–15
Onoda K, Ikeda M (1999) Gustatory disturbance due to cerebrovascular disorder. Laryngoscope 109:123–128
Green TL, McGregor LD, King KM (2008) Smell and taste dysfunction following minor stroke: a case report. Can J Neurosci Nurs 30:10–13
Goto N, Yamamoto T, Kaneko M, Tomita H (1983) Primary pontine hemorrhage and gustatory disturbance: clinicoanatomic study. Stroke 14:507–511
Nakajima Y, Utsumi H, Takahashi H (1983) Ipsilateral disturbance of taste due to pontine hemorrhage. J Neurol 229:133–136
Uesaka Y, Nose H, Ida M, Takagi A (1998) The pathway of gustatory fibers of the human ascends ipsilaterally in the pons. Neurology 50:827–828
Lee BC, Hwang SH, Rison R, Chang GY (1998) Central pathway of taste: clinical and MRI study. Eur Neurol 39:200–203
Sunada I, Akano Y, Yamamoto S, Tashiro T (1995) Pontine haemorrhage causing disturbance of taste. Neuroradiology 37:659
Hoshino S, Hayashi A, Tamaoka A, Shoji S (1999) Bilateral gustatory disturbance caused by a unilateral pontine lesion. Neurology 53:1160–1161
Combarros O, Sánchez-Juan P, Berciano J, De Pablos C (2000) Hemiageusia from an ipsilateral multiple sclerosis plaque at the midpontine tegmentum. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 68:796
Landis BN, Leuchter I, San Millán Ruíz D, Lacroix JS, Landis T (2006) Transient hemiageusia in cerebrovascular lateral pontine lesions. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 77:680–683
Johnson TM (1996) Ataxic hemiparesis and hemiageusia from an isolated post-traumatic midbrain lesion. Neurology 47:1348–1349
Combarros O, Miró J, Berciano J (1994) Ageusia associated with thalamic plaque in multiple sclerosis. Eur Neurol 34:344–346
Pritchard TC, Macaluso DA, Eslinger PJ (1999) Taste perception in patients with insular cortex lesions. Behav Neurosci 113:663–671
Cereda C, Ghika J, Maeder P, Bogousslavsky J (2002) Strokes restricted to the insular cortex. Neurology 59:1950–1955
Kim JS, Choi S (2002) Altered food preference after cortical infarction: Korean style. Cerebrovasc Dis 13:187–191
Mathy I, Dupuis MJ, Pigeolet Y, Jacquerye P (2003) Bilateral ageusia after left insular and opercular ischemic stroke. Rev Neurol 159:563–567
Tomita H, Ikeda M, Okuda Y (1986) Basis and practice of clinical taste examinations. Auris Nasus Larynx 13(Suppl. I):1–15
Hamilton RB, Norgren R (1984) Central projections of gustatory nerves in rat. J Copm Neurol 222:560–577
Beckstead RM, Norgren R (1979) Central distribution of the trigeminal, facial, glossopharyngeal and vagus nerves in monkey. J Comp Neurol 184:455–472
Norgren R, Leonard CM (1971) Taste pathways in rat brainstem. Science 173:1136–1139
Norgren R, Leonard CM (1973) Ascending central gustatory pathways. J Comp Neurol 150:217–237
Onoda K, Kobayakawa T, Ikeda M, Saito S, Kida A (2005) Laterality of human primary gustatory cortex studied by MEG. Chem Senses 30:657–666
Andreassi JL, Okamura H, Stern M (1975) Hemispheric asymmetries in the visual cortical evoked potential as a function of stimulus location. Psychophysiology 12:541–546
Ledlow A, Swanson JM, Kinsbourne M (1978) Differences in reaction times and average evoked potentials as a function of direct and indirect neural pathways. Ann Neurol 3:525–530
Rugg MD, Lines CR, Milner AD (1984) Visual evoked potentials to lateralized visual stimuli and the measurement of interhemispheric transmission time. Neuropsychologia 22:215–225
Terasaki O, Okazaki M (2002) Transcallosal conduction time measured by visual hemifield stimulation with face images. Neuroreport 13:97–99
Mononen LJ, Seitz MR (1977) An AER analysis of contralateral advantage in the transmission of auditory information. Neuropsychologia 15:165–173
Gott PS, Hughes EC, Binggeli RL (1985) Interhemispheric transmission: assessment with vibratory somatosensory evoked potentials. Int J Neurosci 27:121–130
Ganchrow D, Erickson RP (1972) Thalamocortical relations in gustation. Brain Res 36:298–305
Yamamoto T, Kawamura Y (1977) Physiological characteristics of cortical taste area. In: Le Magnen J, MacLeod P (eds) Olfaction and taste VI. Information Retrieval, London, pp 257–264
Beckstead RM, Morse JR, Norgren R (1980) The nucleus of the solitary tract in the monkey: projections to the thalamus and brain stem nuclei. J Comp Neurol 190:259–282
Pritchard TC, Hamilton RB, Morse J, Norgren R (1986) Projections from thalamic gustatory and lingual areas in the monkey, Macaca fascicularis. J Comp Neurol 244:213–228
Ogawa H, Ito S, Nomura T (1985) Two distinct projection areas from tongue nerves in the frontal operculum of macaque monkey as revealed with evoked potential mapping. Neurosci Res 2:447–459
Benjamin RM, Burton H (1968) Projection of taste nerve afferents to anterior opercular-insular cortex in squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus). Brain Res 7:221–231
Benjamin RM, Emmers R, Blomquist AJ (1968) Projection of tongue nerve afferents to somatic sensory area I in squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus). Brain Res 7:208–220
Nageotte J (1906) The pars intermedia or nervus intermedius of Wrisberg, and the bulbopontine gustatory nucleus in man. Rev Neurol Psychiar 4:473–488
Börnstein WS (1940) Cortical representation of taste in man and monkey. I. Functional and anatomical relations of taste, olfaction and somatic sensibility. Yale J Biol Med 12:719–736
Motta G (1959) The cortical taste centers. Bull Sci Med (Bologna) 131:480–493
Kobayakawa T, Endo H, Ayabe-Kanamura S, Kumagai T, Yamaguchi Y, Kikuchi Y, Takeda T, Saito S, Ogawa H (1996) The primary gustatory area in human cerebral cortex studied by magnetoencephalography. Neurosci Lett 212:155–158
Murayama N, Nakasato N, Hatanaka K, Fujita S, Igasaki T, Kanno A, Yoshimoto T (1996) Gustatory evoked magnetic fields in humans. Neurosci Lett 210:121–123
Ogawa H, Akagi T (1978) Afferent connections to the posteromedial ventral nucleus from the pons and the rostral medulla in the rat. Kumamoto Med J 31:54–62
Spector AC (1995) Gustatory function in the parabrachial nuclei: implications from lesion studies in rats. Rev Neurosci 6:143–175
Williams JB, Murphy DM, Reynolds KE, Welch SJ, King MS (1996) Demonstration of a bilateral projection from the rostral nucleus of the solitary tract to the medial parabrachial nucleus in rat. Brain Res 737:231–237
Acknowledgments
No grant support.
Conflict of interest
None.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Onoda, K., Ikeda, M., Sekine, H. et al. Clinical study of central taste disorders and discussion of the central gustatory pathway. J Neurol 259, 261–266 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-011-6165-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-011-6165-z