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Do Signals in the Brain Control Our Taste Preferences?

Women Smiling and doing research

Studies in humans suggest that the preference for certain foods influences how much we eat and that decreased sensitivity to taste is often associated with overconsumption, which may lead to obesity. 

SBU researchers, including Arianna Maffei, professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, used genetic manipulation in a laboratory brain model to demonstrate that neurosteroids, signals involved in mood regulation and stress, can reduce the sensitivity and preference for sweet tastes when elevated within the gustatory cortex — a region in the brain most involved with taste. Their findings are published in
Current Biology.

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