Drinking related direct current positive potential shift in the human EEG depends on thirst

Scalp recorded direct current (DC)-potential shifts were examined in 11 human subjects who had either thirsted for 16 h or had quenched thirst before recordings. The recording epoch included a 3-min baseline, an interval of about 5 min during which subjects drank 400 ml of water, and a 7-min post-dr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuroscience letters 2001-10, Vol.311 (3), p.173-176
Main Authors: HALLSCHMID, M, MÖLLE, M, WAGNER, U, FEHM, H. L, BORN, J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Central nervous system
Cerebral Cortex - anatomy & histology
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
Drinking - physiology
Electroencephalography
Electromyography
Electrooculography
Electrophysiology
Evoked Potentials - physiology
Eye Movements - physiology
Female
Frontal Lobe - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Male
Muscle, Skeletal - physiology
Reaction Time - physiology
Reward
Thirst - physiology
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
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Summary:Scalp recorded direct current (DC)-potential shifts were examined in 11 human subjects who had either thirsted for 16 h or had quenched thirst before recordings. The recording epoch included a 3-min baseline, an interval of about 5 min during which subjects drank 400 ml of water, and a 7-min post-drinking interval. Consistent with previous data, when thirsty, subjects displayed a widespread negative DC-potential shift during drinking which was replaced by a positive DC shift at the transition to the post-drinking interval. The positivity after drinking lasted for about 2 min and averaged 146 microV at frontal recording sites. Quenching thirst before recordings reduced the positive DC-potential shift upon drinking, whereas changes in preceding drinking related DC negativity appeared to be secondary. The post-drinking positive DC-potential shift depending on the subject's motivational state can be considered an indicator of reward associated with quenching thirst, pointing to a lowered frontocortical excitability during reward.
ISSN:0304-3940
1872-7972
DOI:10.1016/S0304-3940(01)02164-4