How will your brain react to that hot sauce? Ihor Butko/Alamy
Anticipating pleasure or pain before tasting hot sauce appears to influence how the brain responds to the spicy flavour.
âThis has broader implications beyond spicy food,â says at East China Normal University. âUnderstanding how positive and negative expectations influence perception can inform approaches in medicine, such as enhancing placebo effects in treatments.â
Luo and her colleagues recruited 47 volunteers â roughly half liked spicy foods and half didnât â to receive squirts…
