Journal article
Regional brain responses associated with drinking water during thirst and after its satiation
P Saker, MJ Farrell, FRM Adib, GF Egan, MJ McKinley, DA Denton
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | Published : 2014
Abstract
The instinct of thirst was a cardinal element in the successful colonization by vertebrates of the dry land of the planet, which began in the Ordovician period about 400 million y ago. It is a commonplace experience in humans that drinking water in response to thirst following fluid loss is a pleasant experience. However, continuing to drink water once thirst has been satiated becomes unpleasant and, eventually, quite aversive. Functional MRI experiments reported here show pleasantness of drinking is associated with activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (Brodmann area 32) and the orbitofrontal cortex. The unpleasantness and aversion of overdrinking is associated with activation in the ..
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Funding Acknowledgements
The authors thank Michael Kean of the Children's MRI Centre (Melbourne, Australia) for his assistance during the execution of the study. This work was supported by the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation, the Search Foundation, S. Baillieu Myer, Diana Gibson, Robert Albert, Dr Mark Nelson, Andrew Abercrombie, Nielma Gantner, and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.