Study of the effect generated in the pattern of the cerebral electrical activity by the tasting of beverage sweetened with different sweeteners

• Grant number: 18/03027-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: June 01, 2018
• End date: May 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Biomedical Engineering - Bioengineering
• Principal Investigator: Ana Carolina de Sousa Silva
• Grantee: Ana Carolina de Sousa Silva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Ernane José Xavier Costa ; Gustavo Voltani von Atzingen ; Hubert Luzdemio Arteaga Miñano

Abstract

Sugar has been the main sweetener in the human diet for centuries representing a high percentage of daily energy consumption with little added nutritional value. There is also association of high sugar intake with various negative health conditions, such as obesity and diabetes, this fact has led to a strong need to totally or partially substitute sugar in foods for alternative low calorie sweeteners. This substitution, however, is linked to consumer acceptance requirements, since preferences are associated with several factors, some of which are difficult to assess. This proposal aims to evaluate the pattern of brain electrical activity of healthy subjects during the tasting of beverages sweetened with caloric sweeteners (sucrose) and low calorie sweeteners (aspartame and sucralose). The goal is to understand whether the brain actually processes caloric and low-caloric sweeteners differently to better understand consumer perceptions of them. During tasting the brain electrical activity will be evaluated and later analysed by means of digital signal processing techniques (Gabor coefficients). The determination of the coefficients and the evaluation of the difference between them will allow us to know if the pattern of cerebral electric activity for the drink with caloric sweetener is similar or not to the one obtained with low calorie sweeteners. The evaluation of the brain signal in these conditions is unprecedented, contributing both to academic studies and to the food industry that could use these results in the formulation of low calorie products. (AU)