Thirdly, preference for more intense sweetness among FHP/PDEP children may reflect an altered brain reward system that needs a more intense sensation of sweetness to release dopamine to levels high enough to compensate for the anhedonia and reduced sensitivity to reward associated with depression and FHP [59,60]. In adults, eating a favorite meal elevates striatal dopamine levels in a dose-dependent manner: the higher the pleasure elicited by the taste of the food, the more dopamine is released [61]. Although it is not yet known whether FHP/PDEP children use sweets to self-medicate or change affect, adults who most prefer high levels of sucrose are more sensitive to the mood-altering effects of sweets and report more impaired control over eating sweets compared with other adults [62,63].
