Your brain doesn’t just care about how food tastes—it also cares about what it does for your body, and both things together make you want to eat more.

Scientific Claim

Orosensory and post-ingestive signals may act together on dopaminergic circuits to influence food intake behavior in humans, indicating that both taste and nutritional feedback contribute to eating motivation.

Original Statement

“Orosensory and peripheral physiological signals may act together on dopaminergic circuits to drive food intake.”

From study:Food Intake Recruits Orosensory and Post-ingestive Dopaminergic Circuits to Affect Eating Desire in Humans.

Evidence Quality Assessment

Claim Status

appropriately stated

Study Design Support

Design cannot support claim

Appropriate Language Strength

association

Can only show association/correlation

Assessment Explanation

The abstract uses 'may act together' and 'highlight the role', indicating association, not causation. No experimental manipulation is described, so 'association' is the correct verb strength.

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

Food Intake Recruits Orosensory and Post-ingestive Dopaminergic Circuits to Affect Eating Desire in Humans.

Cross-Sectional Study

Human

2019 Mar 5

The study found that both how food tastes and how nutritious it is trigger brain chemicals (dopamine) that make us want to eat more, showing that taste and nutrition work together to drive our eating habits.

Contradicting (0)

No contradicting evidence found

Source Study

Food Intake Recruits Orosensory and Post-ingestive Dopaminergic Circuits to Affect Eating Desire in Humans.

Score: 20

DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2018.12.006

Similar Assertions

When you eat tasty food, your brain releases dopamine right away from the taste, and then again later from your body sensing the nutrients—two different brain areas handle each part.

86%

The more you want to eat something, the more dopamine shows up in certain brain areas that track desire—your brain’s ‘I want more’ signal.

78%

Auditory feedback during mastication modulates perceived food satiety and influences subsequent food intake via dopaminergic reward pathways.

75%

When your brain reacts strongly to the taste of food right away, it seems to dial down the later dopamine surge from your stomach feeling full—like your brain is balancing taste and nutrition.

74%

When you eat, not just the 'pleasure centers' light up—bigger thinking areas of your brain also get involved, helping you decide whether to keep eating.

71%