Background/Aims: Human swallowing involves the integration of sensorimotor information with complexities such as taste, however, the interaction between taste of food and its effects on swallowing control however remains unknown. We assessed the effects of pleasant (sweet) and aversive (bitter) tastes on human cortical swallowing motor pathway excitability. Methods: Healthy adult male volunteers underwent a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) mapping study (n=9, mean age 34) to assess cortico-bulbar excitability before and up to 60 minutes after 10-minute liquid infusions; either as a) swallowing tasks or b) delivered directly into the stomach. Infusions comprised; sterile water (neutral), 10% glucose (sweet) and 0.5mM quinine hydrochloride (bitter). The order of delivery was randomised, and each given on separate days. Pharyngeal motor evoked potentials (PMEPs) were recorded from an intra-luminal catheter as a measure of cortico-bulbar excitability and compared using repeated measures and one-way ANOVA. Results: Following the swallowing task (water, glucose, quinine) repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant TIME interaction across tastants (P0.01). One-way ANOVA for each taste showed changes in PMEP amplitudes for both quinine (P0.001) and glucose (P0.009) solutions, but not for water (P=0.001). Subsequent t-tests showed that glucose and quinine reduced PMEPs by 47% (SD 34) and 37% (SD 54) respectively at 30 minutes (P0.03). No changes were observed following infusion of any solution directly into the stomach (P=0.51). Conclusions: Cortical swallowing pathways are similarly modulated by both sweet and bitter tasting stimuli. Changes likely reflect a close interaction between taste and swallowing activity mediated in the central nervous system.