When Tasting a Favorite Beer, Are You in Your 'Right' Mind?
According to researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine, you might be. Drug-seeking behavior can be prompted or cued by certain kinds of drug-associated stimuli. Prior research shows that this behavior likely depends on interactions between the brain's frontal activity and release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the ventral striatum (a structure deep inside the brain that is related to motivated behavior and reward). Previously, the authors of this study, using positron emission tomography (PET), found that beer flavor alone (from small, non-intoxicating amounts of beer) elicited dopamine release in beer drinkers. Here, the authors examined a subset of the previous group, using a similar design, but with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) - a technique that reveals brain activation.