Effect of satiety on brain activation during chocolate tasting in men and women.
BACKGROUND
The brain plays a crucial role in the decision to eat, integrating multiple hormonal and neural signals. A key factor controlling food intake is selective satiety, ie, the phenomenon that the motivation to eat more of a food decreases more than does the motivation to eat foods not eaten.


OBJECTIVE
We investigated the effect of satiation with chocolate on the brain activation associated with chocolate taste in men and women.


METHODS
Twelve men and 12 women participated. Subjects fasted overnight and were scanned by use of functional magnetic resonance imaging while tasting chocolate milk, before and after eating chocolate until they were satiated.


RESULTS
In men, chocolate satiation was associated with increased taste activation in the ventral striatum, insula, and orbitofrontal and medial orbitofrontal cortex and with decreased taste activation in somatosensory areas. Women showed increased taste activation in the precentral gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, and putamen and decreased taste activation in the hypothalamus and amygdala. Sex differences in the effect of chocolate satiation were found in the hypothalamus, ventral striatum, and medial prefrontal cortex (all P < 0.005).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that men and women differ in their response to satiation and suggest that the regulation of food intake by the brain may vary between the sexes. Therefore, sex differences are a covariate of interest in studies of the brain's responses to food.
Smeets
Paul A M
PA
Image Sciences Institute and the Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands. paul@isi.uu.nl
de Graaf
Cees
C
Stafleu
Annette
A
van Osch
Matthias J P
MJ
Nievelstein
Rutger A J
RA
van der Grond
Jeroen
J
D000328:Adult; D001066:Appetite / Q000187:drug effects*; D001628:Beverages; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D002099:Cacao; D002182:Candy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012527:Satiation / Q000187:drug effects*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013649:Taste / Q000187:drug effects*
D010936:Plant Extracts