To feed or not to feed: circuits involved in the control of feeding in insects

•Gustatory neurons express specific gustatory receptor proteins that detect tastants.•The suboesophageal zone of the central nervous system integrates gustatory input.•The valence of taste input can be altered through learning in the mushroom bodies.

To feed or not to feed is a dilemma faced by every animal. The sense of taste is fundamental to the control of food intake. It permits recognition of nutrients, the rejection of toxins, and provides feedback for the coordination of feeding. The suboesophageal zone of the insect brain uses taste information to orchestrate the motor programs responsible for mouthparts coordination during feeding. Discovering the structure of the relevant neural circuits is a work in progress.