Evidence map›Paper›PMID 22712685›Full record

ArticleThe European journal of neuroscience2012

Taste uncoupled from nutrition fails to sustain the reinforcing properties of food.

Jeff A Beeler, James E McCutcheon, Zhen F H Cao, Mari Murakami, Erin Alexander, Mitchell F Roitman, Xiaoxi Zhuang

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The European journal of neuroscience, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
44citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

44 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Trial
  2. Article
  3. The interoceptive origin of reinforcement learning.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2025
    Review
  4. Salience Signaling and Stimulus Scaling of Ventral Tegmental Area Glutamate Neuron Subtypes.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Protein Appetite Drives Macronutrient-Related Differences in Ventral Tegmental Area Neural Activity.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2021
    Article
  14. Age-dependent effects of protein restriction on dopamine release.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2021
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Review
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Jeff A BeelerDepartment of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. jabeeler@uchicago.edu
James E McCutcheon
Zhen F H Cao
Mari Murakami
Erin Alexander
Mitchell F Roitman
Xiaoxi Zhuang

Funding

Modulation of NAc-DA Signaling by Learning Motivational State and PeptidesR01DA025634 · NIDA · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · PI ROITMAN, MITCHELL F · 2009 to 2024
$5.1M
Pharmacological Targets Facilitating Non-Drug Reward & Extinction of Drug-SeekingR01DA025875 · NIDA · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI BEELER, JEFF A. · 2008 to 2012
$1.6M
Reward mechanisms in feeding and obesityR56DK088515 · NIDDK · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI ZHUANG, XIAOXI · 2010 to 2010
$385k
NIDA NIH HHS DA025634NIDA NIH HHS DA25875NIDA NIH HHS R01 DA025634NIDA NIH HHS R01 DA025875NIDDK NIH HHS R56 DK088515NIDDK NIH HHS R56DK088515
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Recent findings suggest the reward system encodes metabolic value independent of taste, provoking speculation that the hedonic value of taste could be derived from nutritional value as a secondary appetitive property. We therefore dissociated and compared the impact of nutrition and taste on appetitive behavior in several paradigms. Though taste alone induces preference and increased consumption, in the absence of nutritional value its reinforcing properties are greatly diminished and it does not, like sucrose, induce increased responding over time. In agreement with behavioral data, saccharin-evoked (but not sucrose-evoked) dopamine release is greatly attenuated following pre-exposure, suggesting that nutritional value is critical for dopamine-mediated reward and reinforcement. Further supporting the primacy of nutrition over taste, genetically increased dopaminergic tone enhances incentive associated with nutritional value with minimal impact on taste-based, hedonic incentive. Overall, we suggest that the sensory-hedonic incentive value associated with taste functions as a conditioned stimulus that requires nutritional value to sustainably organize appetitive behavior.

Indexed as

RewardAnimalsAppetitive BehaviorConditioning, PsychologicalDopamineFemaleFood PreferencesMaleMiceNutritive ValueRatsRats, Sprague-DawleySaccharinSucroseSweetening AgentsTasteDopamineSaccharinSucroseSweetening Agents

Identifiers

PMID22712685
PMCPMC3424366

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.