Scientists from France, the USA and Poland – from the Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and the Interdisciplinary Center for Mathematical and Computational Modeling of the University of Warsaw (ICM UW) have published in the magazine “Cerebral Cortex” an article on the neurobiological effects of long-term consumption of sweeteners, e.g. on the so-called the “reward system”
In the experiment, the scientists wanted to see what happens when the “reward system” is activated over and over again by continuous access to sweets. According to ICM UW, the study used mice that had access to water sweetened with sucrose (food sugar) or sweeteners (saccharin and sucralose) for a long time, simulating the pattern of human consumption of these substances.
Scientists’ research on mice has shown that long-term consumption of sweeteners can permanently disrupt the reward system, the brain’s motivation subsystem.
