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\title{PLOS Science Wednesday: Hi reddit, we're Selena and Arnauld and our
research shows short- and long-term sugar consumption can alter the
reward circuits of the brain that are associated with addiction -- Ask
Us Anything!}



\author[1]{PLOSScienceWednesday }%
\author[1]{r/Science AMAs}%
\affil[1]{Affiliation not available}%


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  \date{April 24, 2026}


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\begin{abstract}
Hi Reddit, My name is Selena Bartlett and I am a Professor of
Neuroscience and Group Leader at the Translational Research Institute,
Institute for Health and Biomedical Innovation at the Queensland
University of QUT. My research focuses on developing innovative
approaches to prevention and treatment of addictions. We focus on trying
to develop strategies to help people overcome addiction to sugar that
drives obesity and alcohol for alcoholism. And my name is Arnauld Belmer
and I am postdoctoral researcher at the Queensland University of QUT. My
research focuses on identifying the brain circuitry underlying the
development of dependence and addiction, including to sugar or alcohol.
My (Selena's) laboratory focuses on dissecting the molecular signaling
and neural circuitry pathways that have been changed by long-term
overconsumption of sugar and/or alcohol. At the lab, we focus on two
important areas associated with addiction, the amygdala that processes
fear, stress and reward and the prefrontal cortex, that is important for
impulse control and decision making. My lab has shown, that
overconsumption of sucrose changes the neuronal circuitry in both the
amygdala (which this paper is about) and the prefrontal cortex. The
shocking finding for my lab, was that sugar changes the brain in exactly
the same way that long-term consumption of alcohol does. Today, we will
discuss the changes happening in the amygdala from overconsumption of
sucrose. We hypothesize that these maladaptive changes in the BLA lead
to changes in signalling activity in the amygdala, that is the
basolateral amygdala becomes more sensitive to stress and fear signaling
over the long-term. The consequence is that the reward/motivation
circuits become down-regulated, this leads to people using high calorie
rewards, such as sucrose, to reduce activity in the over-reactive
amygdala. We recently published a paper titled Binge-like sucrose
consumption reduces the dendritic length and complexity of principal
neurons in the adolescent rat basolateral amygdala in PLOS ONE, showing
that chronic binge-like sucrose consumption elicits maladaptive changes
in the morphology of neurons in the amygdala. We will be answering your
questions at 1pm ET -- Ask Us Anything!%
\end{abstract}%



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