Tasteless food reward

Abstract

Food palatability acts on the dopaminergic reward system to override homeostatic control; however, whether postingestive calorie load in the absence of taste affects this system remains unclear. In this issue of Neuron, de Araujo et al. show that mice lacking functional "sweet" taste receptors (trpm5-/-) develop a preference for sucrose by activating the mesolimbic dopamine-accumbal pathway, solely based on calorie load.