Dossier
Margaret Westwater
Coverage of Margaret Westwater in the Nexus archive.
- Your brain may be tricking you into liking artificial sweeteners, study finds
A study found that expectations and labels significantly influence taste perception, with participants rating artificial sweeteners as more pleasant when they believed they were consuming sugar. Brain scans showed increased reward activity when participants expected sugar, even when given sweeteners, suggesting taste is shaped by both the drink and the brain's predictions.