Learned changes in odour experience: a neural, genetic and behavioural analysis

咖啡因是最广泛使用的精神药物，也是许多食品和饮料中的食品添加剂。最近人们对过量饮用含有高含量咖啡因和糖的能量饮料表示担忧，特别是在年轻消费者中。到目前为止，研究（其中一些由美国约曼斯/斯塔福德/帕克完成）已经证明了咖啡因对情绪、认知和偏好的戒断作用的特征，但关于咖啡因摄入驱动的口味变化的神经机制的更基本问题仍然未知。理解这一点很重要，因为它将揭示对咖啡因的喜爱是如何与特定的大脑通路（包括腺苷）联系在一起的，从而有助于可塑性和成瘾性的问题。该项目将联合收割机结合进一步的行为特征的变化，在人类的味道经验，通过与糖和咖啡因的第一次研究神经变化的反应，咖啡因或糖相关的气味和味道使用功能磁共振成像。此外，我们将研究已知的腺苷受体多态性在对咖啡因反应的个体差异中的潜在作用。学生将接受人类学习和精神药理学方面的最先进培训，味觉和嗅觉的功能磁共振成像测试（在苏塞克斯），气味和味觉检测和辨别的行为分析（在朴茨茅斯）以及人类行为的遗传分析。研究结果有助于理解能量饮料过度消费的驱动因素，并对政策和产品制定产生潜在影响。

Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug and is also a food additive found in many foods and beverages.Recent concerns have been raised about the excess consumption of energy drinks containing high levels of caffeine and sugar, particularly in younger consumers. To date, research (some completed by Yeomans/Stafford/Parker) has demonstrated the characteristics of caffeine in terms of its withdrawal effects on mood, cognition and preference, but the more fundamental questions on the neural mechanisms underlying changes in flavour liking driven by caffeine ingestion remain unknown. This is important to understand as it will reveal how acquiring a liking for caffeine is linked to particular brain pathways (inc adenosine) and thereby contribute to questions of plasticity and addiction. This project will combine further behavioural characterisation of changes in human flavour experience through association with sugars and caffeine with the first ever studies of neural changes in response to caffeine- or sugar-associated odours and tastes using fMRI. Additionally, we will examine the potential role of known polymorphisms in adenosine receptors in individual differences in response to caffeine. The student will receive state-of-the-art training in human learning and psychopharmacology, in fMRI testing with tastes and smells (at Sussex), behavioural analyses of odour and taste detection and discrimination (at Portsmouth) and genetic analysis of human behaviour. The outcomes have relevance to the understanding of drivers of overconsumption of energy drinks, with potential impact on policy and product formulation.