• A M van Opstal, I Kaal, A A van den Berg-Huysmans, M Hoeksma, C Blonk, H Pijl, Rombouts S A R B SARB Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherla, and J van der Grond.
• Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands. Electronic address: a.m.van_opstal@lumc.nl.
• Nutrition. 2019 Apr 1; 60: 80-86.

ObjectiveThe brain is essential in regulating intake of food and beverages by balancing energy homeostasis, which is regulated by the hypothalamus, with reward perception, which is regulated by the ventral tegmental area (VTA). The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of ingestion of glucose, fructose, sucrose, and sucralose (a non-caloric artificial sweetener) on the magnitude and trajectory of the hypothalamic and the VTA blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses.MethodIn five visits, 16 healthy men between 18 to 25 y of age with a body mass index between 20 and 23 kg/m2 drank five interventions in a randomized order while a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan was taken. The interventions consisted of 50 g of glucose, fructose, or sucrose, or 0.33 g of sucralose dissolved in 300 mL tap water. The control condition consisted of 300 mL of plain tap water. BOLD signals were determined in the hypothalamus and the VTA within a manually drawn region of interest. Differences in changes in BOLD signal between stimuli were analyzed using mixed models.ResultsCompared with the control condition, a decrease in BOLD signal in the hypothalamus was found after ingestion of glucose (P = 0.0003), and a lesser but delayed BOLD response was found after ingestion of sucrose (P = 0.006) and fructose (P = 0.003). Sucralose led to a smaller and transient response from the hypothalamus (P = 0.026). In the VTA, sucralose led to a very similar response to the water control condition, leading to an increase in VTA BOLD activity that continued over the measured time period. The natural sugars appeared to only lead to a transient increase in VTA activity.ConclusionsGlucose induces a deactivation in the hypothalamus immediately after ingestion and continued over the next 12 min, which is correlated with satiety signaling by the brain. Fructose and sucrose are both associated with a delayed and lesser response from the hypothalamus, likely because the sugars first have to be metabolized by the body. Sucralose leads to the smallest and most transient decrease in BOLD in the hypothalamus and leads to a similar response as plain water in the VTA, which indicates that sucralose might not have a similar satiating effect on the brain as the natural sugars.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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