The insulo-opercular cortex encodes food-specific content under controlled and naturalistic conditions

The insulo-opercular network is crucial for taste encoding and guiding behavior based on anticipated food availability. This study used intracranial recordings during a food task and *ad libitum* meal consumption to directly measure insulo-opercular activity during taste anticipation. Cue-specific high-frequency broadband (70–170 Hz) activity in the left posterior insula was selective for taste-neutral cues, while sparse regions in the anterior insula were selective for palatable cues. Insular activity was preceded by non-discriminatory frontal operculum activity. During *ad libitum* eating, time-locked high-frequency broadband activity discriminated food types and correlated with cue-specific activity during the task. These findings reveal spatiotemporally specific insulo-opercular activity underlying anticipatory food evaluation in both controlled and naturalistic settings.

Yuhao Huang, Bina W. Kakusa, Austin Feng, Sandra Gattas, Rajat S. Shivacharan, Eric B. Lee, Jonathon J. Parker, Fiene M. Kuijper, Daniel A. N. Barbosa, Corey J. Keller, Cara Bohon, Abanoub Mikhail, Casey H. Halpern