Sensory-specific satiety: food-specific reduction in responsiveness of ventral forebrain neurons after feeding in the...

It has been shown previously that some neurons in the lateral hypothalamus and substantia innominata respond to the sight of food, others to the taste of food, and others to the sight or taste of food, in the hungry monkey. It is shown here that feeding to satiety decreases the responses of hypothalamic neurons to the sight and/or taste of a food on which the monkey has been satiated, but leaves the responses of the same neurons to other foods on which the monkey has not been satiated relatively unchanged. This suggests that the responses of these neurons in the ventral forebrain are related to sensory-specific satiety, an important phenomenon which regulates food intake. In sensory-specific satiety, the pleasantness of the sight or taste of a food becomes less after it is eaten to satiety, whereas the pleasantness of the sight or taste of other foods which have not been eaten is much less changed; correspondingly, food intake is greater if foods which have not already been eaten to satiety are offered.