scholarly journals Taste, olfactory and food texture reward processing in the brain and the control of appetite

2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 488-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund T. Rolls
Keyword(s):  
Food Reward ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Food Texture ◽  
Visual Inputs ◽  
Reward Value

Complementary neuronal recordings and functional neuroimaging in human subjects show that the primary taste cortex in the anterior insula provides separate and combined representations of the taste, temperature and texture (including fat texture) of food in the mouth independently of hunger and thus of reward value and pleasantness. One synapse on, in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), these sensory inputs are for some neurons combined by learning with olfactory and visual inputs, and these neurons encode food reward in that they only respond to food when hungry, and in that activations correlate with subjective pleasantness. Cognitive factors, including word-level descriptions, and attention modulate the representation of the reward value of food in the OFC and a region to which it projects, the anterior cingulate cortex. Further, there are individual differences in the representation of the reward value of food in the OFC. It is argued that over-eating and obesity are related in many cases to an increased reward value of the sensory inputs produced by foods, and their modulation by cognition and attention that over-ride existing satiety signals. It is proposed that control of all rather than one or several of these factors that influence food reward and eating may be important in the prevention and treatment of overeating and obesity.

scholarly journals Sensory processing in the brain related to the control of food intake

2007 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund T. Rolls
Keyword(s):  
Food Intake ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Rhesus Macaques ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Sensory Properties ◽  
Visual Inputs ◽  
Reward Value ◽  
Frontal Operculum ◽  
Taste And Smell

Complementary neurophysiological recordings in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) and functional neuroimaging in human subjects show that the primary taste cortex in the rostral insula and adjoining frontal operculum provides separate and combined representations of the taste, temperature and texture (including viscosity and fat texture) of food in the mouth independently of hunger and thus of reward value and pleasantness. One synapse on, in the orbitofrontal cortex, these sensory inputs are for some neurons combined by learning with olfactory and visual inputs. Different neurons respond to different combinations, providing a rich representation of the sensory properties of food. In the orbitofrontal cortex feeding to satiety with one food decreases the responses of these neurons to that food, but not to other foods, showing that sensory-specific satiety is computed in the primate (including the human) orbitofrontal cortex. Consistently, activation of parts of the human orbitofrontal cortex correlates with subjective ratings of the pleasantness of the taste and smell of food. Cognitive factors, such as a word label presented with an odour, influence the pleasantness of the odour, and the activation produced by the odour in the orbitofrontal cortex. Food intake is thus controlled by building a multimodal representation of the sensory properties of food in the orbitofrontal cortex and gating this representation by satiety signals to produce a representation of the pleasantness or reward value of food that drives food intake. Factors that lead this system to become unbalanced and contribute to overeating and obesity are described.

scholarly journals The orbitofrontal cortex spontaneously encodes food health and contains more distinct representations for foods highest in tastiness

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison M Londerée ◽  
Dylan D Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Food Reward ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Food Cues ◽  
Cognitive Representations ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
Mixed Effects Modeling

Abstract The human orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has long been associated with food reward processing and is thought to represent modality-independent signals of value. Food tastiness and health are core attributes of many models of food choice and dietary self-control. Here we used functional neuroimaging to examine the neural representation of tastiness and health for a set of 28 food categories selected to be orthogonal with respect to both dimensions. Using representational similarity analysis, in conjunction with linear mixed-effects modeling, we demonstrate that the OFC spontaneously encodes food health, whereas tastiness was associated with greater neural dissimilarity. Subsequent analyses using model dissimilarity matrices that encode overall tastiness magnitude demonstrated that the neural representation of foods grows more distinct with increasing tastiness but not with increasing health. In a separate study, we use lexical analysis of natural language descriptions of food to show that food tastiness is associated with more elaborate descriptions of food. Together these data show not only that the OFC spontaneously encodes the dimensions of health and tastiness when viewing appetitive food cues, but also that the neural and cognitive representations of food categories that are the highest in tastiness are more refined than those lower in tastiness.

scholarly journals Context-dependent Deactivation of the Amygdala during Pain

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. 1289-1301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Predrag Petrovic ◽  
Katrina Carlsson ◽  
Karl Magnus Petersson ◽  
Per Hansson ◽  
Martin Ingvar
Keyword(s):  
Stress Responses ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Autonomic Response ◽  
Noxious Stimulation ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
Amygdala Activity ◽  
Related Stress

The amygdala has been implicated in fundamental functions for the survival of the organism, such as fear and pain. In accord with this, several studies have shown increased amygdala activity during fear conditioning and the processing of fear-relevant material in human subjects. In contrast, functional neuroimaging studies of pain have shown a decreased amygdala activity. It has previously been proposed that the observed deactivations of the amygdala in these studies indicate a cognitive strategy to adapt to a distressful but in the experimental setting unavoidable painful event. In this positron emission tomography study, we show that a simple contextual manipulation, immediately preceding a painful stimulation, that increases the anticipated duration of the painful event leads to a decrease in amygdala activity and modulates the autonomic response during the noxious stimulation. On a behavioral level, 7 of the 10 subjects reported that they used coping strategies more intensely in this context. We suggest that the altered activity in the amygdala may be part of a mechanism to attenuate pain-related stress responses in a context that is perceived as being more aversive. The study also showed an increased activity in the rostral part of anterior cingulate cortex in the same context in which the amygdala activity decreased, further supporting the idea that this part of the cingulate cortex is involved in the modulation of emotional and pain networks.

scholarly journals Disentangling reward processes underlying payoff maximization from individual differences in gain frequency bias and reinforcement learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pragathi Priyadharsini Balasubramani ◽  
Juan Diaz-Delgado ◽  
Gillian Grennan ◽  
Mariam Zafar-Khan ◽  
Fahad Alim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Beta Activity ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Healthy Human ◽  
Specific Symptom ◽  
The Right

Humans make choices based on both reward magnitude and reward frequency. Probabilistic decision making is popularly tested using multi-choice gambling paradigms that require participants to maximize task payoff. However, research shows that performance in such paradigms suffers from individual bias towards the frequency of gains as well as individual differences that mediate reinforcement learning, including attention to stimuli, sensitivity to rewards and risks, learning rate, and exploration vs. exploitation based executive policies. Here, we developed a two-choice reward task, implemented in 186 healthy human subjects across the adult lifespan, to understand the cognitive and neural basis of payoff-based performance. We controlled for individual gain frequency biases using experimental block manipulations and modeled individual differences in reinforcement learning parameters. Simultaneously recorded electroencephalography (EEG)-based cortical activations showed that diminished theta activity in the right rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as well as diminished beta activity in the right parsorbitalis region of the inferior frontal cortex (IFC) during cumulative reward presentation correspond to better payoff performance. These neural activations further associated with specific symptom self-reports for depression (greater ACC theta) and inattention (greater IFC beta), suggestive of reward processing markers of clinical utility.

scholarly journals Neuroimaging of Visceral Pain

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 2-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Johns ◽  
Irene Tracey
Keyword(s):  
Visceral Pain ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Somatic Pain ◽  
Secondary Somatosensory Cortex ◽  
Irritable Bowel ◽  
Pain Patients ◽  
The Brain

• Functional neuroimaging allows conscious reporting by human subjects to be related to changes in brain activation during painful stimulation. • Brain regions thought to be involved in the perception of pain include the primary and secondary somatosensory cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, the prefrontal cortex, the insula and the thalamus. • There are major similarities in how visceral pain and somatic pain are processed by the brain. • No single brain region has been found to be responsible for visceral pain. • Patients with IBS often activate the same brain regions as healthy controls in response to pain, but with differing intensities. • Functional neuroimaging studies have failed to reach a consensus opinion on how the brain processes pain in Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Audio-Visual Multisensory Integration in Superior Parietal Lobule Revealed by Human Intracranial Recordings

2006 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 721-729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Molholm ◽  
Pejman Sehatpour ◽  
Ashesh D. Mehta ◽  
Marina Shpaner ◽  
Manuel Gomez-Ramirez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multisensory Integration ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Multisensory Processing ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Superior Parietal Lobule ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Visual Inputs ◽  
Parietal Lobule ◽  
Intracranial Recordings

Intracranial recordings from three human subjects provide the first direct electrophysiological evidence for audio-visual multisensory processing in the human superior parietal lobule (SPL). Auditory and visual sensory inputs project to the same highly localized region of the parietal cortex with auditory inputs arriving considerably earlier (30 ms) than visual inputs (75 ms). Multisensory integration processes in this region were assessed by comparing the response to simultaneous audio-visual stimulation with the algebraic sum of responses to the constituent auditory and visual unisensory stimulus conditions. Significant integration effects were seen with almost identical morphology across the three subjects, beginning between 120 and 160 ms. These results are discussed in the context of the role of SPL in supramodal spatial attention and sensory-motor transformations.

Functional neuroimaging in anorexia nervosa: A clinical approach

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 176-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Pietrini ◽  
G. Castellini ◽  
V. Ricca ◽  
C. Polito ◽  
A. Pupi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
The Body ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Clinical Approach ◽  
Cerebral Activity ◽  
High Level

AbstractAimsTo provide a review of the available literature about the functional neuroimaging of anorexia nervosa, and to summarize the possible role of neurobiological factors in its pathogenesis.MethodsA systematic review of the literature was performed using PubMed and Medline electronic database (1950–September 2009). Eligible studies were restricted to those involving the main parameters of cerebral activity and functional neuroimaging techniques. Findings of the reviewed studies have been grouped on a diagnostic subtype basis, and their comparison has been interpreted in terms of concordance.ResultsWe found a high level of concordance among available studies with regard to the presence of frontal, parietal and cingulate functional disturbances in both anorexia nervosa restricting and binge/purging subtypes. Concordance among studies conducted regardless of the anorexia nervosa subtypes suggests an alteration in temporal and parietal functions and striatal metabolism.ConclusionsThe most consistent alterations in anorexia nervosa cerebral activity seem to involve the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the inferior parietal lobule, the anterior cingulate cortex and the caudate nucleus. They may affect different neural systems such as the frontal visual system, the attention network, the arousal and emotional processing systems, the reward processing network, and the network for the body schema.

scholarly journals Sleep deprivation selectively up-regulates an amygdala-hypothalamic circuit involved in food reward

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia S. Rihm ◽  
Mareike M. Menz ◽  
Heidrun Schultz ◽  
Luca Bruder ◽  
Leonhard Schilbach ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Weight Gain ◽  
Sleep Deprivation ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Food Reward ◽  
Sleep Loss ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Snack Food ◽  
Fat Percentage ◽  
Cue Processing

AbstractSleep loss is associated with increased obesity risk, as demonstrated by correlations between sleep duration and change in body mass index or body fat percentage. Whereas previous studies linked this weight gain to disturbed endocrine parameters after sleep deprivation (SD) or restriction, neuroimaging studies revealed up-regulated neural processing of food rewards after sleep loss in reward-processing areas such as the anterior cingulate cortex, ventral striatum and insula. To tackle this ongoing debate between homeostatic versus hedonic factors underlying sleep loss-associated weight gain, we rigorously tested the association between SD and food cue processing using high-resolution fMRI and assessment of hormones. After taking blood samples from thirty-two lean, healthy men, they underwent fMRI while performing a neuroeconomic, value-based decision making task with snack food and trinket rewards following a full night of habitual sleep (HS) and a night of SD in a repeated-measures cross-over design. We found that des-acyl ghrelin concentrations were increased after SD compared with HS. Despite similar hunger ratings due to fasting in both conditions, participants were willing to spend more money on food items only after SD. Furthermore, fMRI data paralleled this behavioral finding, revealing a food reward-specific up-regulation of hypothalamic valuation signals and amygdala-hypothalamic coupling after a single night of SD. Behavioral and fMRI results were not significantly correlated with changes in acyl, des-acyl or total ghrelin concentrations. Our results indicate that increased food valuation after sleep loss is due to hedonic rather than hormonal mechanisms.

scholarly journals Cannabinoids, reward processing, and psychosis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon Gunasekera ◽  
Kelly Diederen ◽  
Sagnik Bhattacharyya
Keyword(s):  
Psychotic Disorders ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Dopamine Synthesis ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Drug Challenge ◽  
Psychotomimetic Effects

Abstract Background Evidence suggests that an overlap exists between the neurobiology of psychotic disorders and the effects of cannabinoids on neurocognitive and neurochemical substrates involved in reward processing. Aims We investigate whether the psychotomimetic effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and the antipsychotic potential of cannabidiol (CBD) are underpinned by their effects on the reward system and dopamine. Methods This narrative review focuses on the overlap between altered dopamine signalling and reward processing induced by cannabinoids, pre-clinically and in humans. A systematic search was conducted of acute cannabinoid drug-challenge studies using neuroimaging in healthy subjects and those with psychosis Results There is evidence of increased striatal presynaptic dopamine synthesis and release in psychosis, as well as abnormal engagement of the striatum during reward processing. Although, acute THC challenges have elicited a modest effect on striatal dopamine, cannabis users generally indicate impaired presynaptic dopaminergic function. Functional MRI studies have identified that a single dose of THC may modulate regions involved in reward and salience processing such as the striatum, midbrain, insular, and anterior cingulate, with some effects correlating with the severity of THC-induced psychotic symptoms. CBD may modulate brain regions involved in reward/salience processing in an opposite direction to that of THC. Conclusions There is evidence to suggest modulation of reward processing and its neural substrates by THC and CBD. Whether such effects underlie the psychotomimetic/antipsychotic effects of these cannabinoids remains unclear. Future research should address these unanswered questions to understand the relationship between endocannabinoid dysfunction, reward processing abnormalities, and psychosis.

scholarly journals Striatal and Pallidal Activation during Reward Modulated Movement Using a Translational Paradigm

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 399-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Bischoff-Grethe ◽  
Richard B. Buxton ◽  
Martin P. Paulus ◽  
Adam S. Fleisher ◽  
Tony T. Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cues ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Dorsal Striatum ◽  
Imaging Study ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Internal Globus Pallidus ◽  
Target Capture

AbstractHuman neuroimaging studies of reward processing typically involve tasks that engage decision-making processes in the dorsal striatum or focus upon the ventral striatum’s response to feedback expectancy. These studies are often compared to the animal literature; however, some animal studies include both feedback and nonfeedback events that activate the dorsal striatum during feedback expectancy. Differences in task parameters, movement complexity, and motoric effort to attain rewards may partly explain ventral and dorsal striatal response differences across species. We, therefore, used a target capture task during functional neuroimaging that was inspired by a study of single cell modulation in the internal globus pallidus during reward-cued, rotational arm movements in nonhuman primates. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, participants used a fiberoptic joystick to make a rotational response to an instruction stimulus that indicated both a target location for a capture movement and whether or not the trial would end with feedback indicating either a small financial gain or a neutral outcome. Portions of the dorsal striatum and pallidum demonstrated greater neural activation to visual cues predicting potential gains relative to cues with no associated outcome. Furthermore, both striatal and pallidal regions displayed a greater response to financial gains relative to neutral outcomes. This reward-dependent modulation of dorsal striatal and pallidal activation in a target-capture task is consistent with findings from reward studies in animals, supporting the use of motorically complex tasks as translational paradigms to investigate the neural substrates of reward expectancy and outcome in humans. (JINS, 2015, 21, 399–411)

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