File:Summary of three distinct sensory pathways involved in flavor perception.jpg

English: Summary of three distinct sensory pathways involved in flavor perception. Taste, smell, and chemesthesis are integrated in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to generate the unitary percept that we call flavor. Taste signals are carried by Cranial Nerves VII, IX, and X to the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST), which connects to the Ventral Posteromedial Nucleus (VPM) within the Thalamus. The VPM projects to the taste cortex located in the Insula. CN VII (the facial nerve) has two branches involved in taste: the chorda tympani (CT) innervates the anterior tongue while the greater superficial petrosal nerve (GSP) innervates the palate. Smell signals are carried by Cranial Nerve I through the cribriform plate to the olfactory bulb (OB), the Olfactory Cortex (OC), and then the Medial Dorsal Nucleus (MDN) within the Thalamus. Chemesthetic signals are carried by multiple cranial nerves (see Green, 2016), but for simplicity, only the trigeminal nerve (CN V) is shown here. Separate branches of the trigeminal nerve come together in the trigeminal ganglion (not shown), before descending to the spinal trigeminal nucleus (SpV) in the brain stem. From the SpV, signals ascend contralaterally to the VPM in the Thalamus, and then to the Somatosensory Cortex (SC). (Some anatomical landmarks in the brain have been omitted, and positions shown here may not be exact).