The primary gustatory cortex, the brain’s taste cortex, is two pieces deep in the side of each hemisphere: the anterior insula, on the insular lobe, and the frontal operculum on the inferior frontal gyrus, which folds over it. Together they are called AI/FO. [1]
The 3D brain needs JavaScript. The text below still says where the gustatory cortex is and what it does.
The insula and the inferior frontal gyrus are lit together; the gustatory cortex is not drawn on its own. The front (coronal) slice button cuts through them. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom, tap any part to name it; .
Lit: the whole insula and the inferior frontal gyrus, on both sides. The area is part of these lit parts; its exact border is not drawn. It is the anterior insula plus the frontal operculum of the inferior frontal gyrus. The model draws the insula and the inferior frontal gyrus each as one shape, so both whole parts are lit. [1][2]
Takes part in: taste — see every part of each lit together.
Where it is
It consists of two parts: the anterior insula on the insular lobe and the frontal operculum on the inferior frontal gyrus of the frontal lobe. [1]
The insula is folded deep within the lateral sulcus, and the cortex lying over it toward the surface is the operculum (“lid”). [3]
Brodmann’s list gives area 43, the subcentral area at the foot of the postcentral gyrus near the insula, as primary gustatory cortex, while the article on area 43 calls it somatosensory (it answers eating, drinking and pressure on the eardrum): where sources draw taste cortex differs, which is one reason no border is drawn here. [4][5]
What it does
Neurons here respond to sweetness, saltiness, bitterness and sourness, and code how intense the taste is. [1]
Electrical stimulation of the human insula produces taste sensations, and the insula is also active when people imagine tastes. [1]
Earlier rodent work suggested a map with each taste in its own spot; newer imaging in mice (two-photon calcium imaging) and humans (fMRI) points instead to tastes coded by the firing of mixed groups of broadly tuned neurons. [1]
Connections
Taste reaches it in three steps: the facial, glossopharyngeal and vagus nerves carry it to the solitary nucleus in the medulla, which sends it to the medial half of the ventral posterior medial nucleus of the thalamus, which sends it here. [1]
It passes taste on to the orbitofrontal cortex, the secondary gustatory cortex, where about 8% of neurons respond to taste. [1]
Other names
Primary gustatory cortex (GC), sometimes written AI/FO for anterior insula/frontal operculum. [1]
Size
The model has no shape for the gustatory cortex itself, so it is not measured here. The whole left insula and the inferior frontal gyrus that hold it measure, together, about 82 mm front to back, 62 mm top to bottom and 36 mm side to side on this model (the box they fit in, not their volume). [2]
Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. The 3D model is the adult male BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); real brains vary in size and shape, so its measurements describe one model, not anyone’s brain.