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 brains 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.
Thanks for posting (heading down to the fridge for my 2nd IPA). Very interesting.
Bet it wouldn’t work in somebody who’d never drunk beer before.
So, with Budweiser, there would be no dopamine release?
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
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?
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.
Unggggh BEER!
Same thing happens with chocolate....duh.
Is there anything that Beer can’t do???
Too many beers then causes melatonin to be released.
Not that it has ever happened to me, but I’ve heard....
If you administer the beer in the right quantities to the right gal it can lead to all of what you said.
Beer makes you smart, it made Bud wiser....
LOL!!!
Well, it does lead to inventions, like "beer goggles"!
Of course so does time, as in "2 AM"
It’s Saturday night and it has been a long strenuous week. I think I’ll go force a dopamine release or two.
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GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
Thanks Jyotishi. |
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I blame myself.
Well beer is very good stuff, but my preferred dopamine starter is a good single malt scotch whiskey straight up.
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