Effects Of Daily Coca-Cola Intake On Neural Responses To Coca-Cola Images

Based on contentions that frequent sugar consumption can trigger addiction-like responses during exposure to salient external cues,we assessed the effects of manipulating habitual Coca-Cola intake and cessation on changes in neural responses to Coca-Cola images among 1).habitual soft-drink consumers,and 2).new soft-drink consumers respectively.In study 1,Coca-Cola drinkers(N=11)and infrequent soft-drink consumers(N=10)ingested 500 ml bottles of Coca-Cola and mineral water,respectively,for 21 consecutive days before undergoing an f MRI scan featuring images of the two beverages.Subsequently,both groups drank mineral water for 30 days,after which follow-up scans were performed.The post-consumption assessment indicated habitual Coca-Cola drinkers reported decreased Coca-Cola liking compared to baseline.Exposure to Coca-Cola images elicited weaker activation in regions involved in inhibitory control among habitual drinkers relative to controls.Follow-up scans indicated all previous beverage group differences in cue-based neural activation disappeared.In study 2,infrequent soft-drink consumers were randomly assigned to incorporate Coca-Cola(N=11)or mineral water(N=10)into their daily diet for 21 consecutive days before engaging in f MRI scans featuring images of the two beverages.Subsequently,both groups were instructed to avoid Coca-Cola and drink mineral water for 30 days,after which follow-up scans were performed with the same image set.Neither in post-consumption phase nor follow-up scans indicated beverage group differences in cue-based activation.In studies 1 and 2,almost no reward related area difference was found,that might due to the small sample sizes and use of a non-indigenous food(i.e.,a Western brand-name beverage).In a word,reward regions responsiveness of Chineseparticipants may be dampened during exposure to Western food images compared to images of more highly preferred Chinese foods.To test further,Study 3 evaluated differences in reward,attention,gustatory,and inhibitory control regions elicited by indigenous(i.e.,local Chinese meals)versus Western meals.Native Chinese adults(15women,14 men)were instructed to view visual images of Chinese foods vs.Western foods separately in blocks and imagine eating each one during f MRI scans.Analyses indicated significantly higher levels of liking and wanting depictions of Chinese foods than Western foods.Results of f MRI scan also revealed stronger activation to Chinese food images [contrasted with Western food] in regions implicated in reward(i.e.,insula,Caudate,Midbrain,MPG,limbic lobe),attention and visual(i.e.,Cuneus,Precuneus,m OG,i OG,LG)and memory(i.e.,parahippocampal gyrus,MTG,PCC).In sum,Coca-Cola intake affected subjective experiences and cue-based neural activation patterns during exposure to salient external cues,especially negative inhibitory activation,but all effects were transient and dissipated after Coca-Cola drinkers substituted a calorie-free alternative within their daily diet.In addition,non-significant "reward region" results of Studies 1 and 2 may be partially reflections of cultural differences,suggest further neural-imaging studies to food images take a deep consideration of indigenous impact.