Summary: A new study reports the oral perception of coldness and carbonation can help to reduce thirst.
Source: Monell Chemical Senses Center.
Understanding sensory drivers of thirst may help improve hydration in at-risk populations.
New research from the Monell Center and collaborators finds that oral perceptions of coldness and carbonation help to reduce thirst, the uncomfortable sensation caused by the need to drink fluids. Because thirst and its cessation contribute to how much fluid a person drinks, the current findings could help guide sensory approaches to increase fluid intake in populations at risk for dehydration, including the elderly, soldiers, and athletes.
Drinking fluids helps protect against dehydration, which occurs when the body loses more fluid than it consumes. Mild to moderate dehydration can lead to thirst and headaches, but severe dehydration requires immediate medical attention. People at risk of severe dehydration include the elderly, soldiers, athletes, and laborers.
“We have a decent understanding of what turns thirst on, but need to better understand what turns it off so we can motivate the elderly and other at-risk populations to keep drinking their fluids,” said Paul A.S. Breslin, PhD, study senior author and a sensory biologist at Monell.
While it is commonly believed that rehydration alleviates thirst, in actuality thirst is relieved, and the act of drinking ceases, long before a consumed liquid is absorbed by the body. Sensory cues in the mouth appear to play a role in thirst quenching, but the specific signals that the body uses to determine the amount of liquid consumed and when to stop drinking remain largely unknown.
In the current study, published in the open access journal PLOS ONE, Monell researchers investigated several oral sensations to identify which have an impact on thirst and influence the amount of liquid people drink.
A total of 98 healthy individuals between the ages of 20 and 50 participated in the experiments. To induce thirst, participants abstained from liquid and food overnight and then ate a small breakfast of toast and jelly. At this point, the participants rated their thirst as ‘strong.’ Each then had five minutes to drink 400 ml (13.5 oz) of water under one of four conditions, varying temperature (room-temperature or cold refrigerator-temperature) and carbonation (plain or carbonated).
Then, after a short rest, the participants were allowed to drink as much plain (non-carbonated, room temperature) water as they wished.
By measuring how much plain water was consumed after the experimental beverage, the researchers could evaluate how well the experimental beverage had quenched participants’ thirst.
Using this functional measure, the researchers found that cold liquid reduced thirst more effectively than room temperature. Adding carbonation to a cold beverage further enhanced the beverage’s thirst quenching properties. Experiments testing the thirst-quenching effects of astringency, sweetness, and mild acidification showed no effect, supporting the specific effects of cold and carbonation on thirst reduction.
“Our results confirmed what people tend to naturally do when they are thirsty: drink a cold and often carbonated beverage to feel a sensation of relief,” said Catherine Peyrot des Gachons, PhD, also a sensory biologist at Monell and the study’s lead author.
A separate experiment showed that using menthol to chemically create the sensation of cooling had a similar thirst quenching effect to the water actually being at a cold temperature. “This shows that it’s the perception of coolness that’s influencing thirst, not the actual coolness itself,” said Breslin.
Breslin emphasizes the importance of sensory information in guiding how much fluid we drink. “Thirst signals a physiological need, but the cessation of thirst is the result of sensory information being integrated in the brain,” he said.
Moving forward, the researchers are interested in exploring the sensory cues that trigger a desire to drink, which could lead to beverages or techniques that improve hydration in at risk populations.
Also contributing to the research were Michael Gleason and Siyu Zhang of Monell; Julie Avrillier of Monell and AgroSup Dijon Institut National Superieur, Dijon, France; Laure Algarra of Monell and AgroParisTech Paris, Paris, France; and Emi Mura and Hajime Nagai of Suntory Global Innovation Center Limited, Osaka, Japan. Dr. Breslin also holds an appointment at Rutgers University School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.
Funding: This research was funded in part by a grant from the Suntory Global Innovation Center. Other than the research contributions of authors Mura and Nagai, Suntory played no role in design, data analysis, or interpretation.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Source: Leslie Stein – Monell Chemical Senses Center
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Full open access research for “Oral Cooling and Carbonation Increase the Perception of Drinking and Thirst Quenching in Thirsty Adults” by Catherine Peyrot des Gachons, Julie Avrillier, Michael Gleason, Laure Algarra, Siyu Zhang, Emi Mura, Hajime Nagai, and Paul A. S. Breslin in PLOS ONE. Published online Septermber 29 2016 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0162261
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Monell Chemical Senses Center “Cold and Bubbly Are The Sensory Qualities That Best Quench Thirst.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 3 October 2016.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/sensory-perception-thirst-5182/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Monell Chemical Senses Center (2016, October 3). Cold and Bubbly Are The Sensory Qualities That Best Quench Thirst. NeuroscienceNew. Retrieved October 3, 2016 from https://neurosciencenews.com/sensory-perception-thirst-5182/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Monell Chemical Senses Center “Cold and Bubbly Are The Sensory Qualities That Best Quench Thirst.” https://neurosciencenews.com/sensory-perception-thirst-5182/ (accessed October 3, 2016).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]
Abstract
Oral Cooling and Carbonation Increase the Perception of Drinking and Thirst Quenching in Thirsty Adults
Fluid ingestion is necessary for life, and thirst sensations are a prime motivator to drink. There is evidence of the influence of oropharyngeal stimulation on thirst and water intake in both animals and humans, but how those oral sensory cues impact thirst and ultimately the amount of liquid ingested is not well understood. We investigated which sensory trait(s) of a beverage influence the thirst quenching efficacy of ingested liquids and the perceived amount ingested. We deprived healthy individuals of liquid and food overnight (> 12 hours) to make them thirsty. After asking them to drink a fixed volume (400 mL) of an experimental beverage presenting one or two specific sensory traits, we determined the volume ingested of additional plain, ‘still’, room temperature water to assess their residual thirst and, by extension, the thirst-quenching properties of the experimental beverage. In a second study, participants were asked to drink the experimental beverages from an opaque container through a straw and estimate the volume ingested. We found that among several oro-sensory traits, the perceptions of coldness, induced either by cold water (thermally) or by l-menthol (chemically), and the feeling of oral carbonation, strongly enhance the thirst quenching properties of a beverage in water-deprived humans (additional water intake after the 400 ml experimental beverage was reduced by up to 50%). When blinded to the volume of liquid consumed, individual’s estimation of ingested volume is increased (~22%) by perceived oral cold and carbonation, raising the idea that cold and perhaps CO2 induced-irritation sensations are included in how we normally encode water in the mouth and how we estimate the quantity of volume swallowed. These findings have implications for addressing inadequate hydration state in populations such as the elderly.
“Oral Cooling and Carbonation Increase the Perception of Drinking and Thirst Quenching in Thirsty Adults” by Catherine Peyrot des Gachons, Julie Avrillier, Michael Gleason, Laure Algarra, Siyu Zhang, Emi Mura, Hajime Nagai, and Paul A. S. Breslin in PLOS ONE. Published online Septermber 29 2016 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0162261
