Taste of beer, without effect from alcohol, triggers dopamine release in the brain

[Jim__]

From Medical Xpress:

The taste of beer, without any effect from alcohol itself, can trigger dopamine release in the brain, which is associated with drinking and other drugs of abuse, according to Indiana University School of Medicine researchers.

Using positron emission tomography (PET), the researchers tested 49 men with two scans, one in which they tasted beer, and the second in which they tasted Gatorade, looking for evidence of increased levels of dopamine, a brain neurotransmitter long associated with alcohol and other drugs of abuse. The scans showed significantly more dopamine activity following the taste of beer than the sports drink. Moreover, the effect was significantly greater among participants with a family history of alcoholism.

...

"We believe this is the first experiment in humans to show that the taste of an alcoholic drink alone, without any intoxicating effect from the alcohol, can elicit this dopamine activity in the brain's reward centers," said David A. Kareken, Ph.D., professor of neurology at the IU School of Medicine and the deputy director of the Indiana Alcohol Research Center.

The stronger effect in participants with close alcoholic relatives suggests that the release of dopamine in response to such alcohol-related cues may be an inherited risk factor for alcoholism, said Dr. Kareken.

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[Vinnie From Indy]

1. Beer is the reason we quit hunting & gathering and began forming cities

and agriculture and the wheel and accounting and all sorts of cool stuff. Wanna know why the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock? Beer run!

[FiveGoodMen]

4. Yes, but did the beer come before of after the pizza?

[Scuba]

2. Pavlov would find this unremarkable.

[Warpy]

3. When anything alcoholic became a consistent migraine trigger

and I had to give it up, the one thing I missed is beer.

Birrell was very good, but it just wasn't the same.

[Laelth]

5. Benjamin Franklin

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

-Laelth