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Beer's taste triggers dopamine release in brain
DNA ^ | Tuesday, Apri 16, 2013 | ANI

Posted on 04/20/2013 5:34:09 PM PDT by Jyotishi

The taste of beer, without any effect from alcohol itself, can trigger dopamine release in the brain that is associated with drinking and other drugs of abuse, researchers have claimed.

Using positron emission tomography (PET), the researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine tested 49 men with two scans, one in which they tasted beer, and the second in which they tasted Gatorade.

The researchers were looking for evidence of increased levels of dopamine, a brain neurotransmitter that has long been 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,” David A. Kareken, Ph.D., professor of neurology at the IU School of Medicine and the deputy director of the Indiana Alcohol Research Center, said.

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

The participants got a very small amount of their preferred beer - 15 milliliters - over a 15-minute time period, enabling them to taste the beer without having any detectable blood alcohol level or intoxicating effect.

Using a PET scanning compound that targets dopamine receptors in the brain, the scientists were able to assess changes in dopamine levels occurring after the participants tasted the liquids.

Results have been published online Monday by the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agriculture; alcohol; animalhusbandry; beer; brain; godsgravesglyphs; health; neurology; pharmacology; zymurgy
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1 posted on 04/20/2013 5:34:09 PM PDT by Jyotishi
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To: Jyotishi

Thanks for posting (heading down to the fridge for my 2nd IPA). Very interesting.


2 posted on 04/20/2013 5:37:36 PM PDT by PGalt
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To: Jyotishi

Bet it wouldn’t work in somebody who’d never drunk beer before.


3 posted on 04/20/2013 5:38:42 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: Jyotishi

So, with Budweiser, there would be no dopamine release?


4 posted on 04/20/2013 5:39:03 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (The ballot box is a sham. Nothing will change until after the war.)
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To: All

Must be the hops. Too bad that the only beer in the house is still fermenting and won’t be ready for two more weeks


5 posted on 04/20/2013 5:39:32 PM PDT by Klemper
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To: Sherman Logan

Exactly. The dopamine is likely released as a Pavlovian response based upon the taste and then anticipation of the effect of the alcohol in the beer.

Sheesh. How much did this study cost us?


6 posted on 04/20/2013 5:40:44 PM PDT by Obadiah (High speed, low drag.)
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To: Jyotishi

I don’t drink...never have,never will.But I must say that a nice big piece of prime rib,done medium rare,goes to the pleasure centers of my brain at about the speed of light.


7 posted on 04/20/2013 5:43:12 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Leno Was Right,They *Are* Undocumented Democrats!)
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To: Jyotishi

Unggggh BEER!

8 posted on 04/20/2013 5:43:34 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (And winter is coming.)
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To: Jyotishi

Same thing happens with chocolate....duh.


9 posted on 04/20/2013 5:43:38 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Jyotishi
I will be so bold as to extend their theory to: any pleasurable physical sensation, be it sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch, can trigger the physiochemical responses associated with pleasure. Now where's my grant money?
10 posted on 04/20/2013 5:47:07 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: All

Is there anything that Beer can’t do???


11 posted on 04/20/2013 5:47:29 PM PDT by KevinDavis (Third Parties are for losers.)
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To: Jyotishi

Too many beers then causes melatonin to be released.
Not that it has ever happened to me, but I’ve heard....


12 posted on 04/20/2013 5:49:03 PM PDT by llevrok (2013: America is in a cold civil war.)
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To: SpaceBar

If you administer the beer in the right quantities to the right gal it can lead to all of what you said.


13 posted on 04/20/2013 5:51:23 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (Obama is the Chicken Little of politics)
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To: Jyotishi

Beer makes you smart, it made Bud wiser....


14 posted on 04/20/2013 5:53:09 PM PDT by Las Vegas Ron (Medicine is the keystone in the arch of socialism)
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To: ClearCase_guy

LOL!!!


15 posted on 04/20/2013 5:55:52 PM PDT by Hardastarboard (Buck Off, Bronco Bama)
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To: KevinDavis
Is there anything that Beer can’t do???

Well, it does lead to inventions, like "beer goggles"!

Of course so does time, as in "2 AM"

16 posted on 04/20/2013 5:55:54 PM PDT by Las Vegas Ron (Medicine is the keystone in the arch of socialism)
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To: Jyotishi

It’s Saturday night and it has been a long strenuous week. I think I’ll go force a dopamine release or two.


17 posted on 04/20/2013 5:57:58 PM PDT by jy8z (From the next to last exit before the end of the internet.)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Thanks Jyotishi.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


18 posted on 04/20/2013 6:02:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: Jyotishi

I blame myself.


19 posted on 04/20/2013 6:02:45 PM PDT by jaz.357 (Contrary To Ordinary)
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To: jy8z

Well beer is very good stuff, but my preferred dopamine starter is a good single malt scotch whiskey straight up.


20 posted on 04/20/2013 6:04:41 PM PDT by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; --- FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)
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