Figure 3.
Effects of consuming sucrose and aspartame sweetened beverages on regional brain activity. A, Preintervention brain images showing effects of the stress task (MIST) at the preintervention visit, collapsed across all subjects from both intervention groups. The stress task led to significant (P < .01) unilateral (left panel) deactivation in the amygdala (−20, −4, −16), hippocampus (−22, −16, −22), and anterior cingulate cortex (BA10; −4, 52, 12). B, Repeated-measures ANCOVA showed a significant treatment group by visit interaction [F (1, 15) = 6.8, P = .020; effect size (η2p) = 0.15]. In contrast to the preintervention visit, significantly greater MIST-induced hippocampal activity was observed in the sucrose, but not aspartame, group at the postintervention visit. The brain image in panel C shows the net effect of sucrose consumption to increase above preintervention and the aspartame group hippocampal activity in response to the stress task (MIST). A higher number on the color scale indicates greater activity. *, P = .001 for statistical difference in hippocampal activity between sucrose and aspartame groups at the postintervention visit.