How expectations about artificial sweeteners may affect their taste

How expectations about artificial sweeteners may affect their taste

Elena Mainetto, from Radboud University, Margaret Westwater, from the University of Oxford, and colleagues at the University of Cambridge explored whether they could change how much people enjoy beverages containing sugar or artificial sweeteners by manipulating previous expectations about the drinks. The work is published in JNeurosci.

Trick the Brain, Taste the Reward: How Expectations Rewrite Sweetness

Expectation is the secret ingredient. New neuroimaging research reveals that believing a drink contains sugar can "supercharge" the brain's reward response to artificial sweeteners.