The relationship between food reward and satiation revisited.
The postingestive satiating action of food is often viewed as producing a positive affective state that rewards eating. However, in an early test of this idea, Van Vort and Smith [Physiol. Behav. 30 (1983) 279] reported that rats did not learn to prefer a food that was "real-fed" and satiating over a food that was "sham-fed" and not satiating. Subsequent investigators obtained similar findings with concentrated nutrient sources. With dilute nutrient sources, however, rats learned to prefer the real-fed to the sham-fed food. These and other findings demonstrate that nutrients have rewarding postingestive effects that enhance food preferences via a conditioning process. These reward effects appear separate from the satiating actions of nutrients, which may actually reduce food reward. Food intake and preference are controlled by a complex interaction of positive and negative signals generated by nutrients in the mouth and at postingestive sites.
Sclafani
Anthony
A
Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY 11210-2889, USA. Asclafani@gc.cuny.edu
Ackroff
Karen
K
D000818:Animals; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D012201:Reward; D012527:Satiation / Q000502:physiology*; D013270:Stomach / Q000294:innervation