The Great Disinhibitor: Alcohol, Food Cues, and Eating Behavior

AbstractObesity is a highly prevalent disease, usually resulting from chronic overeating. Accumulating evidence suggests that increased neural responses during the anticipation of high caloric food play an important role in overeating. A promising method to counteract enhanced food anticipation in overeating might be mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). However, how MBIs can affect food reward anticipation neurally has never been studied. In this randomized, actively controlled study we aimed to investigate whether an 8-week mindful eating intervention decreases reward anticipation in striatal and midbrain reward regions. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, we tested 58 healthy subjects with a wide body mass index range (BMI: 19-35 kg/m2), who were motivated to change their eating behavior. During scanning they performed an incentive delay task, measuring neural reward anticipation responses to caloric and monetary cues before and after 8 weeks of mindful eating or educational cooking (active control). Relative to educational cooking (active control), mindful eating decreased reward anticipation responses to food, but not to monetary reward cues, in the midbrain, but not the striatum. The effects were specific to reward anticipation and did not extend to reward receipt. These results show that an 8-week mindful eating intervention may decrease the salience of food cues specifically, which could result in decreased food-cue triggered overeating on the long term.Significance statementMindfulness-based interventions have been shown effective in reducing disordered eating behavior in clinical as well as non-clinical populations. Here, we present the first randomized actively controlled study investigating the effects of mindfulness on reward anticipation in the brain. Using fMRI we show that midbrain responses to caloric, but not monetary, reward cues are reduced following an 8-week intervention of mindful eating relative to educational cooking (active control). Mindful eating interventions may thus be promising in counteracting reward cue-driven overeating, particularly in our obesogenic environment with food cues everywhere. Moreover, our data show that specific mindfulness-based interventions can target specific reward-cue responses in the brain, which might be relevant in other compulsive behaviors such as addiction.

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Neural indicators of food cue reactivity, regulation, and valuation and their associations with body composition and daily eating behavior

10.31234/osf.io/23mu5 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Danielle Cosme ◽

Richard B. Lopez

Keyword(s):

Body Composition ◽

Eating Behavior ◽

Eating Behaviors ◽

Cue Reactivity ◽

A Priori ◽

Reward Processing ◽

Food Cues ◽

Cue Exposure ◽

Food Cravings ◽

Daily Food

Exposure to food cues activates the brain’s reward system and undermines efforts to regulate impulses to eat. During explicit regulation, lateral prefrontal cortex activates and modulates activity in reward regions and decreases food cravings. However, it is unclear the extent to which between-person differences in recruitment of regions associated with reward processing, subjective valuation, and regulation during food cue exposure—absent instructions to regulate—predict body composition and daily eating behaviors. In this preregistered study, we pooled data from five fMRI samples (N = 262) to examine whether regions associated with reward, valuation, and regulation, as well as whole-brain pattern expression indexing these processes, were recruited during food cue exposure and associated with body composition and real-world eating behavior. Regression models for a single a priori analytic path indicated that univariate and multivariate measures of reward and valuation were associated with individual differences in BMI and enactment of daily food cravings. Specification curve analyses further revealed reliable associations between univariate and multivariate neural indicators of reactivity, regulation, and valuation, and all outcomes. These findings highlight the utility of these methods to elucidate brain-behavior associations and suggest that multiple processes are implicated in proximal and distal markers of eating behavior.

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The Effect of Pre-exposure to Food Cues on the Eating Behavior of Restrained and Unrestrained Eaters

Appetite ◽

10.1006/appe.1996.0057 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 33-47 ◽

Cited By ~ 335

Author(s):

INGRI D.C. FEDOROFF ◽

JANET POLIVY ◽

C.PETER HERMAN

Keyword(s):

Eating Behavior ◽

Food Cues ◽

Unrestrained Eaters

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Exposure to Written Content Eliciting Weight Stigmatization: Neural Control of Appetite and Food Reward

Current Developments in Nutrition ◽

10.1093/cdn/nzaa057_003 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_2) ◽

pp. 1187-1187

Author(s):

Katherene Anguah ◽

Elizabeth Parks ◽

Shawn Christ

Keyword(s):

Body Weight ◽

Eating Behavior ◽

Neural Control ◽

Food Reward ◽

Fasting Glucose ◽

Group Differences ◽

Food Cues ◽

Significant Group ◽

The Right ◽

Food Pictures

Abstract Objectives Weight bias occurs due to environmental cues, and beyond impacting a person's perception, may have direct physiological effects. Here, fMRI was used to investigate whether exposure to written weight stigmatization content influenced the neural control of appetite and food reward in response to high-calorie (HC), low-calorie (LC) and non-food (NF) images. Relationships were assessed between neural activation, blood glucose, age, body weight, eating behavior (assessed by TFEQ), and subjective pleasantness ratings of food pictures. Methods Overweight/obese individuals were randomized to read either a weight stigma (WS) or control (CT) article, and subsequently underwent brain scans while they rated (via button press) pleasantness of food pictures. Fasting glucose concentrations and TFEQ were measured before reading the article (prior to scanning) and glucose was repeated post-scanning. Results No differences were observed in age or BMI between subjects who read the WS article (6 men, 12 women; mean ± SD, 35.2 ± 13.1y; BMI 30.5 ± 3.0) and CT article (3 men, 15 women, 35.4 ± 11.3y, BMI 30.0 ± 3.3). Whole brain fMRI analysis revealed significant group differences in activation to HC > LC food cues in the following regions: left insula, left thalamus, left inferior occipital gyrus (IOG), right lingual gyrus (LG), and right middle occipital gyrus (P < 0.005 for all). Significant group differences in overall activation to food cues (HC + LC > NF) were observed in the right superior medial gyrus. A significant negative correlation was found between activation in the left IOG and both age (r = −0.38, P = 0.023) and pre-scan glucose concentrations (r = −0.40, P = 0.015). Furthermore, activation in the right LG was positively related to pleasantness ratings for HC foods (r = 0.34, P = 0.040). No significant relationships were observed between activation in any brain region and eating behavior by TFEQ. Conclusions Both younger age and lower fasting glucose concentrations were associated with higher activation in a visual attention region in response to HC foods. Exposure to WS content is associated with increased HC food-related activation in several brain areas implicated in food reward, motivation, attention, and visual memory. WS may increase body weight by increasing motivation for HC food consumption. Funding Sources University of Missouri Brain Imaging Center Type II grant.

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Cerebral μ-opioid and CB1-receptor systems have distinct roles in human feeding behavior

10.1101/2020.12.17.423284 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Tatu Kantonen ◽

Tomi Karjalainen ◽

Laura Pekkarinen ◽

Janne Isojärvi ◽

Kari Kalliokoski ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Eating Behavior ◽

Neural Pathways ◽

Healthy Individuals ◽

Palatable Food ◽

Food Cues ◽

Positron Emission ◽

External Eating ◽

Eating Styles ◽

Pet Scans ◽

The Brain

AbstractEating behavior varies greatly between healthy individuals, but the neurobiological basis of these trait-like differences in feeding remains unknown. Central μ-opioid receptors (MOR) and cannabinoid CB1-receptors (CB1R) regulate energy balance via multiple neural pathways, promoting food intake and reward. Because obesity and eating disorders have been associated with alterations in brain’s opioid and endocannabinoid signaling, the variation in MOR and CB1R systems could potentially underlie distinct eating behavior phenotypes, also in non-obese population. In this retrospective positron emission tomography (PET) study, we analyzed [11C]carfentanil PET scans of MORs from 92 healthy subjects (70 males and 22 females), and [18F]FMPEP-d2 scans of CB1Rs from 35 subjects (all males, all also included in the [11C]carfentanil sample). Eating styles were measured with the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ). We found that lower cerebral MOR availability was associated with increase in external eating – individuals with low MORs reported being more likely to eat in response to environment’s palatable food cues. CB1R availability was negatively associated with multiple eating behavior traits. We conclude that although MORs and CB1Rs overlap anatomically and functionally in the brain, they have distinct roles in mediating individual feeding patterns.

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Cerebral μ-opioid and CB1 receptor systems have distinct roles in human feeding behavior

Translational Psychiatry ◽

10.1038/s41398-021-01559-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Tatu Kantonen ◽

Tomi Karjalainen ◽

Laura Pekkarinen ◽

Janne Isojärvi ◽

Kari Kalliokoski ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Eating Behavior ◽

Food Reward ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Neural Pathways ◽

Palatable Food ◽

Food Cues ◽

Positron Emission ◽

External Eating ◽

Eating Styles ◽

Pet Scans

AbstractEating behavior varies greatly between individuals, but the neurobiological basis of these trait-like differences in feeding remains poorly understood. Central μ-opioid receptors (MOR) and cannabinoid CB1 receptors (CB1R) regulate energy balance via multiple neural pathways, promoting food intake and reward. Because obesity and eating disorders have been associated with alterations in the brain’s opioid and endocannabinoid signaling, the variation in MOR and CB1R system function could potentially underlie distinct eating behavior phenotypes. In this retrospective positron emission tomography (PET) study, we analyzed [11C]carfentanil PET scans of MORs from 92 healthy subjects (70 males and 22 females), and [18F]FMPEP-d2 scans of CB1Rs from 35 subjects (all males, all also included in the [11C]carfentanil sample). Eating styles were measured with the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ). We found that lower cerebral MOR availability was associated with increased external eating—individuals with low MORs reported being more likely to eat in response to environment’s palatable food cues. CB1R availability was associated with multiple eating behavior traits. We conclude that although MORs and CB1Rs overlap anatomically in brain regions regulating food reward, they have distinct roles in mediating individual feeding patterns. Central MOR system might provide a pharmacological target for reducing individual’s excessive cue-reactive eating behavior.

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