Weekend Science: Beer Flavor Leads To Dopamine Release In Men
Saturday, July 27, 2013 - 11:10
in Psychology & Sociology
You know what happens to women when they watch Katherine Heigl movies or episodes of "The Bachelor"? Well, it happens to men also - when they think there might be beer nearby.Really, it is almost Pavlovian, except the saliva is mental too. A PET scan study found that even when no alcohol was involved, the flavor of beer caused striatal dopamine release in men.(1) The striatum in men (and women - and all primates - but this particular study is about men, so, let's stay on message) consists of the caudate nucleus and the putamen and it gets input from the cerebral cortex and structures like the amygdala and hippocampus. Let's make a picture to show these inputs: read more