Unlike artificial sweeteners, sugar promotes ingestive behavior via both gustatory and post-ingestive pathways. Tellez et al. find that separate basal ganglia circuits mediate the hedonic and nutritional actions of sugar. They demonstrate that sugar recruits a dedicated striatofugal pathway that acts to prioritize calorie-seeking over taste quality.
- Luis A Tellez
- Wenfei Han
- Ivan E de Araujo
