Food Reward in the Absence of Taste Receptor Signaling

[GeneGnome]

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Food Reward in the Absence of Taste Receptor Signaling

Ivan E. de Araujo,1,5,8,* Albino J. Oliveira-Maia,1,6,7,8 Tatyana D. Sotnikova,4 Raul R. Gainetdinov,4
Marc G. Caron,4 Miguel A.L. Nicolelis,1,3,5 and Sidney A. Simon1,2,5
DOI 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.01.032

SUMMARY
Food palatability and hedonic value play central roles
in nutrient intake. However, postingestive effects can
influence food preferences independently of palatability,
although the neurobiological bases of such
mechanisms remain poorly understood. Of central
interest is whether the same brain reward circuitry
that is responsive to palatable rewards also encodes
metabolic value independently of taste signaling.
Here we show that trpm5/ mice, which lack the
cellular machinery required for sweet taste transduction,
can develop a robust preference for sucrose
solutions based solely on caloric content. Sucrose
intake induced dopamine release in the ventral striatum
of these sweet-blind mice, a pattern usually
associated with receipt of palatable rewards. Furthermore,
single neurons in this same ventral striatal
region showed increased sensitivity to caloric intake
even in the absence of gustatory inputs. Our findings
suggest that calorie-rich nutrients can directly influence
brain reward circuits that control food intake
independently of palatability or functional taste
transduction.

[Gixxer82]

Ok so what this study is saying (in laymans terms) is that your body knows what foods contain what nutrients, so when it is in the "mood" for those nutrients it activates certain sensors and taste buds to make you crave food containing those nutrients?

[GeneGnome]

Originally Posted by Gixxer82

Ok so what this study is saying (in laymans terms) is that your body knows what foods contain what nutrients, so when it is in the "mood" for those nutrients it activates certain sensors and taste buds to make you crave food containing those nutrients?

It is saying that there is other sensing going post ingestion that influences NAcc dopamine levels (reward) independent of taste. So oral hedonic (pleasure) properties of foods are not the only variable on reward.