Sensory-specific satiety is intact in amnesics who eat multiple meals.
What is the relationship between memory and appetite? We explored this question by examining preferences for recently consumed food in patients with amnesia. Although the patients were unable to remember having eaten, and were inclined to eat multiple meals, we found that sensory-specific satiety was intact in these patients. The data suggest that sensory-specific satiety can occur in the absence of explicit memory for having eaten and that impaired sensory-specific satiety does not underlie the phenomenon of multiple-meal eating in amnesia. Overeating in amnesia may be due to disruption of learned control by physiological aftereffects of a recent meal or to problems utilizing internal cues relating to nutritional state.
Higgs
Suzanne
S
University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B152TT, England. s.higgs.1@bham.ac.uk
Williamson
Amy C
AC
Rotshtein
Pia
P
Humphreys
Glyn W
GW
D000647:Amnesia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002149:Energy Intake; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012528:Satiety Response; D012677:Sensation; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology