Sucrose activates human taste pathways differently from artificial sweetener.
Animal models suggest that sucrose activates taste afferents differently than non-caloric sweeteners. Little information exists how artificial sweeteners engage central taste pathways in the human brain. We assessed sucrose and sucralose taste pleasantness across a concentration gradient in 12 healthy control women and applied 10% sucrose and matched sucralose during functional magnet resonance imaging. The results indicate that (1) both sucrose and sucralose activate functionally connected primary taste pathways; (2) taste pleasantness predicts left insula response; (3) sucrose elicits a stronger brain response in the anterior insula, frontal operculum, striatum and anterior cingulate, compared to sucralose; (4) only sucrose, but not sucralose, stimulation engages dopaminergic midbrain areas in relation to the behavioral pleasantness response. Thus, brain response distinguishes the caloric from the non-caloric sweetener, although the conscious mind could not. This could have important implications on how effective artificial sweeteners are in their ability to substitute sugar intake.
Frank
Guido K W
GK
University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Department of Psychiatry, The Children's Hospital, Aurora, CO 80045, USA.
Oberndorfer
Tyson A
TA
Simmons
Alan N
AN
Paulus
Martin P
MP
Fudge
Julie L
JL
Yang
Tony T
TT
Kaye
Walter H
WH
D000328:Adult; D000344:Afferent Pathways / Q000187:drug effects*; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D004298:Dopamine / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D012201:Reward; D013395:Sucrose / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013549:Sweetening Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013649:Taste / Q000187:drug effects*; D013650:Taste Buds / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
D013549:Sweetening Agents; D013395:Sucrose; C026285:trichlorosucrose; D004298:Dopamine