Interestingly enough, males and females process the consumption of chocolate in different ways and it affects our brains differently.
In men, chocolate satiation was associated with increased taste activation in the ventral striatum, insula, and orbitofrontal and medial orbitofrontal cortex and with decreased taste activation in somatosensory areas. Women showed increased taste activation in the precentral gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, and putamen and decreased taste activation in the hypothalamus and amygdala.
In contrast to men, in women the amygdala plays an important role after satiation with chocolate. The amygdala is known to respond to both aversive and pleasant taste stimuli. It was found that amygdala activation in women decreased after chocolate satiation. Having had enough chocolate results in a decrease of activation of the amygdala in women. In men there was no effect of satiation on amygdala activation.
In women in response to satiation the taste activation in the hypothalamus decreased. This could reflect the decrease in hunger, ie, the decreased motivation to eat chocolate.
B WANSINK, M CHENEY, N CHAN (2003). Exploring comfort food preferences across age and gender1 Physiology & Behavior, 79 (4-5), 739-747 DOI: 10.1016/S0031-9384(03)00203-8
Paul AM Smeets,, Cees de Graaf,, Annette Stafleu,, Matthias JP van Osch,, Rutger AJ Nievelstein,, Jeroen van der Grond (2006). Effect of satiety on brain activation during chocolate tasting in men and women American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Bruinsma, Kristen, Taren, Douglas L. (1999). Chocoalte: Food or Drug? Journal of the american dietetic association, 99 (10), 1249-1256 DOI: 10524390 |
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