Caloric labels do not influence taste pleasantness and neural responses to erythritol and sucrose
Introduction: The beneficial effects of substituting sugar with non-caloric sweeteners (NCSs) remain uncertain due to the mismatch between their rewarding sweet taste and lack of energy content. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies indicate an influence of cognitive processes (e.g.,...
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Elsevier
2025-03-01
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| Series: | NeuroImage |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811925000631 |
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| author | Aleksandra Budzinska Laura Byl Fabienne Teysseire Emilie Flad Patrick Dupont Bettina Wölnerhanssen Anne Christin Meyer-Gerspach Lukas Van Oudenhove Nathalie Weltens |
| author_facet | Aleksandra Budzinska Laura Byl Fabienne Teysseire Emilie Flad Patrick Dupont Bettina Wölnerhanssen Anne Christin Meyer-Gerspach Lukas Van Oudenhove Nathalie Weltens |
| author_sort | Aleksandra Budzinska |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Introduction: The beneficial effects of substituting sugar with non-caloric sweeteners (NCSs) remain uncertain due to the mismatch between their rewarding sweet taste and lack of energy content. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies indicate an influence of cognitive processes (e.g., beliefs, expectations) on reward system responses to NCSs, thereby changing their rewarding properties. We measured the impact of cognitive influences about the caloric content on brain responses and liking ratings to erythritol, a natural NCS with satiating properties, versus sugar (i.e., sucrose). Methods: We performed a within-subject, single-blind, counterbalanced fMRI study in 30 healthy males (mean ± SD: age 23 ± 0.6 years, BMI 22.5 ± 0.3 kg/m²). Concentrations of erythritol were individually titrated to match the perceived sweetness intensity of a 16 % sucrose solution. During the scan, sucrose and equisweet erythritol solutions were delivered as 1 mL sips with either correct or purposefully incorrect ''low-calorie'' or ''high-calorie'' labels. After each sip, participants rated sweetness liking. Water with a ''water'' label was used as the control condition. Results: A 2 × 2 ANOVA revealed lower liking ratings for erythritol than sucrose (p < 0.0001), but no main effect of the label, nor label-by-sweetener interaction. General Linear Model (GLM) analysis of brain responses at FDR q < 0.05 showed no main effect of sweetener nor label, nor a label-by-sweetener interaction. However, several patterns of brain activity mediated the differences in subjective liking ratings between the sweeteners. Moreover, different neural responses were found for sucrose vs. water in parcel-wise, SVM, and ROI-based analyses, whereas for erythritol vs. water, only the latter two showed differences. Lastly, sucrose induced a stronger craving signature response compared to erythritol, driven by the pattern specific to drug craving. Conclusion: Liking ratings were lower for erythritol than sucrose, and they were unaffected by the caloric label. There were no differences in neural responses between the sweeteners and labels, except in comparisons with water. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1a356e2eea6246c6b610232cbc30bb3a |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1095-9572 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | NeuroImage |
| spelling | doaj-art-1a356e2eea6246c6b610232cbc30bb3a2025-02-03T04:16:29ZengElsevierNeuroImage1095-95722025-03-01308121061Caloric labels do not influence taste pleasantness and neural responses to erythritol and sucroseAleksandra Budzinska0Laura Byl1Fabienne Teysseire2Emilie Flad3Patrick Dupont4Bettina Wölnerhanssen5Anne Christin Meyer-Gerspach6Lukas Van Oudenhove7Nathalie Weltens8Laboratory for Brain-Gut Axis Studies (LaBGAS), Translational Research in Gastrointestinal Disorders (TARGID), Department of Chronic Diseases and Metabolism (CHROMETA), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, BelgiumLaboratory for Brain-Gut Axis Studies (LaBGAS), Translational Research in Gastrointestinal Disorders (TARGID), Department of Chronic Diseases and Metabolism (CHROMETA), KU Leuven, Leuven, BelgiumSt. Clara Research Ltd at St. Claraspital, Basel, Switzerland; Faculty of Medicine, University of Basel, Basel, SwitzerlandSt. Clara Research Ltd at St. Claraspital, Basel, Switzerland; Faculty of Medicine, University of Basel, Basel, SwitzerlandLeuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Laboratory for Cognitive Neurology, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, BelgiumSt. Clara Research Ltd at St. Claraspital, Basel, Switzerland; Faculty of Medicine, University of Basel, Basel, SwitzerlandSt. Clara Research Ltd at St. Claraspital, Basel, Switzerland; Faculty of Medicine, University of Basel, Basel, SwitzerlandLaboratory for Brain-Gut Axis Studies (LaBGAS), Translational Research in Gastrointestinal Disorders (TARGID), Department of Chronic Diseases and Metabolism (CHROMETA), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab (CANlab), Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, United StatesLaboratory for Brain-Gut Axis Studies (LaBGAS), Translational Research in Gastrointestinal Disorders (TARGID), Department of Chronic Diseases and Metabolism (CHROMETA), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Corresponding author at: Laboratory for Brain-Gut Axis Studies (LaBGAS), Translational Research in Gastrointestinal Disorders (TARGID), Department of Chronic Diseases and Metabolism (CHROMETA), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.Introduction: The beneficial effects of substituting sugar with non-caloric sweeteners (NCSs) remain uncertain due to the mismatch between their rewarding sweet taste and lack of energy content. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies indicate an influence of cognitive processes (e.g., beliefs, expectations) on reward system responses to NCSs, thereby changing their rewarding properties. We measured the impact of cognitive influences about the caloric content on brain responses and liking ratings to erythritol, a natural NCS with satiating properties, versus sugar (i.e., sucrose). Methods: We performed a within-subject, single-blind, counterbalanced fMRI study in 30 healthy males (mean ± SD: age 23 ± 0.6 years, BMI 22.5 ± 0.3 kg/m²). Concentrations of erythritol were individually titrated to match the perceived sweetness intensity of a 16 % sucrose solution. During the scan, sucrose and equisweet erythritol solutions were delivered as 1 mL sips with either correct or purposefully incorrect ''low-calorie'' or ''high-calorie'' labels. After each sip, participants rated sweetness liking. Water with a ''water'' label was used as the control condition. Results: A 2 × 2 ANOVA revealed lower liking ratings for erythritol than sucrose (p < 0.0001), but no main effect of the label, nor label-by-sweetener interaction. General Linear Model (GLM) analysis of brain responses at FDR q < 0.05 showed no main effect of sweetener nor label, nor a label-by-sweetener interaction. However, several patterns of brain activity mediated the differences in subjective liking ratings between the sweeteners. Moreover, different neural responses were found for sucrose vs. water in parcel-wise, SVM, and ROI-based analyses, whereas for erythritol vs. water, only the latter two showed differences. Lastly, sucrose induced a stronger craving signature response compared to erythritol, driven by the pattern specific to drug craving. Conclusion: Liking ratings were lower for erythritol than sucrose, and they were unaffected by the caloric label. There were no differences in neural responses between the sweeteners and labels, except in comparisons with water.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811925000631SucroseNon-caloric sweetenersCaloric labelsImplicit biasfMRIMVPA |
| spellingShingle | Aleksandra Budzinska Laura Byl Fabienne Teysseire Emilie Flad Patrick Dupont Bettina Wölnerhanssen Anne Christin Meyer-Gerspach Lukas Van Oudenhove Nathalie Weltens Caloric labels do not influence taste pleasantness and neural responses to erythritol and sucrose NeuroImage Sucrose Non-caloric sweeteners Caloric labels Implicit bias fMRI MVPA |
| title | Caloric labels do not influence taste pleasantness and neural responses to erythritol and sucrose |
| title_full | Caloric labels do not influence taste pleasantness and neural responses to erythritol and sucrose |
| title_fullStr | Caloric labels do not influence taste pleasantness and neural responses to erythritol and sucrose |
| title_full_unstemmed | Caloric labels do not influence taste pleasantness and neural responses to erythritol and sucrose |
| title_short | Caloric labels do not influence taste pleasantness and neural responses to erythritol and sucrose |
| title_sort | caloric labels do not influence taste pleasantness and neural responses to erythritol and sucrose |
| topic | Sucrose Non-caloric sweeteners Caloric labels Implicit bias fMRI MVPA |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811925000631 |
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