Scientists found the answer: Why do we love bitter coffee?
A new study published in Nature reveals a hidden neural pathway linking the digestive system to the brain, explaining how millions of people learn to love bitter coffee. The researchers discovered a slow dopamine system that responds to signals from the body and teaches the brain to prefer certain tastes due to their positive effects.
A new study published in Nature has identified the neural pathway that explains why millions of people learn to love bitter coffee. The research team, led by scientists from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and in collaboration with Yale University and the Max Planck Institute, discovered a slow dopamine system connecting the digestive system to the brain. Sensors in the digestive tract detect components like caffeine and send signals that trigger a slow release of dopamine in the BLA region of the brain, which is responsible for emotions and learning. In experiments with mice, blocking this pathway prevented them from learning to associate a new taste with calories. Brain scans of 13 men and 38 adults confirmed a similar mechanism in humans. The researchers estimate that in the future, this pathway could be tuned to alter food preferences, similar to how we learned to love bitter coffee.