scholarly journals Developmental Changes in Food Perception and Preference

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. A7-A8
Author(s):  
Monica Serrano-Gonzalez ◽  
Seung-Lark Lim ◽  
Nicolette Sullivan ◽  
Robert Kim ◽  
Megan M Herting ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Preferences ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Differential Rate ◽  
Low Calorie ◽  
Food Perception ◽  
Age Related ◽  
High Calorie

Abstract Food choices are a key determinant of dietary intake, with involved brain regions such as the mesolimbic and prefrontal cortex maturing at a differential rate from childhood to young adulthood. However, developmental changes in healthy and unhealthy food perception and preference remain poorly understood. We aimed to understand this gap by investigating whether perceptions and preferences for food vary as a function of age, and how specific food attributes (i.e., taste and health) impact these age-related changes. We hypothesized that there would be an inverted U-shaped relationship between age and preference for high-calorie foods. As well, we expected that both dietary self-control and the decision weight of the health attribute would increase with age. One hundred thirty-nine participants aged 8–23 years (79 males, 60 females) participated in this study. They completed computerized rating tasks to assess taste, health, and liking (or preference) of high-calorie and low-calorie foods, followed by 100 binary food choices based on each participant’s individual ratings for taste and health. Among the 100 pairs, 75 were deemed challenge trials, where one food had a higher taste rating but a lower health rating than the other food item. Dietary self-control was considered successful when the healthier food cue in the challenge trial was chosen, and self-control success ratio (SCSR) was computed as the proportion of self-control success trials over the total number of choices. Results showed that high-calorie foods were rated as more tasty (r = 0.32, p < 0.001) and less healthy (r = -0.22, p < 0.01) with increasing age. As well, older participants wanted to eat high-calorie foods more than the younger participants (r = 0.29, p = 0.001). Furthermore, older age was associated with an increased decision weight of taste attribute on food preferences (r = 0.26, p = 0.002), suggesting that the taste attribute may contribute to the age-related increases in preference for high-calorie foods. Although participants rated low-calorie foods as less tasty (r = -0.17, p = 0.04) and less healthy (r= -0.31, p < 0.001) with increasing age, there was no significant association between age and preference for low-calorie foods. Participants made faster food choices with increasing age (r= -0.31, p < 0.001), which was driven by failed self-control choices (r = -0.23, p = 0.006). There was no significant association between age and SCSR (p = 0.5). Our results are consistent with other studies that demonstrate age-related increases in consumption of calorie-dense foods in youth, and suggest that age may be more relevant to preference for high-calorie than low-calorie foods. Future studies are merited to investigate the neurobiology underlying these developmental changes in food perceptions and preferences.

scholarly journals Developmental Changes in Food Perception and Preference

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Serrano-Gonzalez ◽  
Megan M. Herting ◽  
Seung-Lark Lim ◽  
Nicolette J. Sullivan ◽  
Robert Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Choices ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Central Adiposity ◽  
Low Calorie ◽  
Success Ratio ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Food Perceptions ◽  
High Calorie

Food choices are a key determinant of dietary intake, with brain regions, such as the mesolimbic and prefrontal cortex maturing at differential rates into adulthood. More needs to be understood about developmental changes in healthy and unhealthy food perceptions and preference. We investigated how food perceptions and preference vary as a function of age and how food attributes (taste and health) impact age-related changes. One hundred thirty-nine participants (8–23 years, 60 females) completed computerized tasks to rate high-calorie and low-calorie food cues for taste, health, and liking (preference), followed by 100 binary food choices based on each participant’s ratings. Dietary self-control was considered successful when the healthier (vs. tastier) food was chosen. Self-control success ratio was the proportion of success trials over total number of choices. Beta-weights for health (β-health) and taste (β-taste) were calculated as each attribute’s influence on food preference. Adiposity measurements included BMI z-score and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). High-calorie foods were rated more tasty and less healthy with increasing age. Older participants liked high-calorie foods more (vs. younger participants), and β-taste was associated with age. Significant age-by-WHtR interactions were observed for health and taste ratings of high-calorie foods, β-taste, and marginally for preference of high-calorie foods. Stratifying by WHtR (high, low), we found age-related increases in taste and preference ratings of high-calorie foods in the high WHtR group alone. In contrast, age-related decreases in health ratings of high-calorie foods were significant in the low WHtR group alone. Age and β-taste were significantly associated in the high WHtR group and only marginally significant with low WHtR. Although participants rated low-calorie foods as less tasty and less healthy with increasing age, there was no association between age and preference for low-calorie foods. Participants made faster food choices with increasing age regardless of WHtR, with a significant age-by-WHtR interaction on reaction time (RT). There were no age-related effects in self-control success ratio and β-health. These results suggest that individual differences in age and central adiposity play an important role in preference for high-calorie foods, and a higher importance of food tastiness in food choice may contribute to greater preference for high-calorie foods with increasing age.

scholarly journals The dynamics of self-control: within-participant modeling of binary food choices and underlying decision processes as a function of restrained eating

2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (7) ◽  
pp. 1777-1788 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Georgii ◽  
Michael Schulte-Mecklenbeck ◽  
Anna Richard ◽  
Zoé Van Dyck ◽  
Jens Blechert
Keyword(s):  
Food Choice ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Restrained Eating ◽  
Restrained Eaters ◽  
Process Measures ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
Independent Replication ◽  
High Calorie

Abstract Successful self-control during food choice might require inhibition of impulses to avoid indulging in tempting but calorie-dense foods, and this might particularly apply to individuals restraining their food intake. Adopting a novel within-participant modeling approach, we tested 62 females during a mouse-tracking based binary food choice task. Subsequent ratings of foods on palatability, healthiness, and calorie density were modeled as predictors for both decision outcome (choice) and decision process (measures of self-control conflict) while considering the moderating role of restrained eating. Results revealed that individuals higher on restrained eating were less likely to choose more high-calorie foods and showed less self-control conflict when choosing healthier foods. The latter finding is in contrast with the common assumption of self-control as requiring effortful and conscious inhibition of temptation impulses. Interestingly, restrained eaters rated healthy and low-calorie foods as more palatable than individuals with lower restrained eating scores, both in the main experiment and an independent replication study, hinting at an automatic and rather effortless mechanism of self-control (palatability shift) that obviates effortful inhibition of temptation impulses.

scholarly journals Cognitive regulation of multimodal food perception in the human brain

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Janet ◽  
A. Fournel ◽  
M. Fouillen ◽  
E Derrington ◽  
M Bensafi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Preferences ◽  
Neural Circuitry ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Blood Levels ◽  
Appetite Regulation ◽  
Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Regulation ◽  
Food Items ◽  
Food Perception

The ability to regulate appetite is essential to avoid food over-consumption. The desire for a particular food can be triggered by its odor before it is even seen. Using fMRI, we identify the neural systems modulated by cognitive regulation when experiencing appetizing food stimuli presented in both olfactory and visual modalities, while being hungry. Regulatory instruction modulated bids for food items and inhalation patterns. Distinct brain regions were observed for up and down appetite-regulation, respectively the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and dorsolateral PFC. Food valuation engaged the ventromedial PFC and bilateral striatum while the amygdala was modulated by individual food preferences, indexed by rank-ordered bids. Furthermore, we identified a neurobiological marker for up-regulating success: individuals with higher blood levels of ghrelin were better at exercising up-regulation, and engaged more the dmPFC. This characterizes the neural circuitry regulating food consumption and suggests potential hormonal and neurofunctional targets for preventing eating disorders.

scholarly journals Obesity and Dietary Added Sugar Interact to Affect Postprandial GLP-1 and Its Relationship to Striatal Responses to Food Cues and Feeding Behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Jones ◽  
Shan Luo ◽  
Hilary M. Dorton ◽  
Alexandra G. Yunker ◽  
Brendan Angelo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Feeding Behavior ◽  
Cue Reactivity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Plain Water ◽  
Food Cues ◽  
Brain Response ◽  
Added Sugar ◽  
Low Calorie ◽  
Sugar Intake ◽  
High Calorie

It has been hypothesized that the incretin hormone, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), decreases overeating by influencing mesolimbic brain regions that process food-cues, including the dorsal striatum. We previously showed that habitual added sugar intake was associated with lower glucose-induced circulating GLP-1 and a greater striatal response to high calorie food cues in lean individuals. Less is known about how dietary added sugar and obesity may interact to affect postprandial GLP-1 and its relationship to striatal responses to food cues and feeding behavior. The current study aimed to expand upon previous research by assessing how circulating GLP-1 and striatal food cue reactivity are affected by acute glucose consumption in participants with varied BMIs and amounts of habitual consumption of added sugar. This analysis included 72 participants from the Brain Response to Sugar Study who completed two study visits where they consumed either plain water or 75g glucose dissolved in water (order randomized; both drinks were flavored with non-caloric cherry flavoring) and underwent repeated blood sampling, a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) based food-cue task, and an ad-libitum buffet meal. Correlations between circulating GLP-1 levels, striatal food-cue reactivity, and food intake were assessed, and interactions between obesity and added sugar on GLP-1 and striatal responses were examined. An interaction between BMI and dietary added sugar was associated with reduced post-glucose GLP-1 secretion. Participants who were obese and consumed high levels of added sugar had the smallest increase in plasma GLP-1 levels. Glucose-induced GLP-1 secretion was correlated with lower dorsal striatal reactivity to high-calorie versus low-calorie food-cues, driven by an increase in reactivity to low calorie food-cues. The increase in dorsal striatal reactivity to low calorie food-cues was negatively correlated with sugar consumed at the buffet. These findings suggest that an interaction between obesity and dietary added sugar intake is associated with additive reductions in postprandial GLP-1 secretion. Additionally, the results suggest that changes to dorsal striatal food cue reactivity through a combination of dietary added sugar and obesity may affect food consumption.

scholarly journals Top-down expectation effects of food labels on motivation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joost Wegman ◽  
Ilke van Loon ◽  
Paul A.M. Smeets ◽  
Roshan Cools ◽  
Esther Aarts
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Choice Test ◽  
Taste Intensity ◽  
Food Labels ◽  
Implicit Motivation ◽  
Low Calorie ◽  
Written Information ◽  
Implicit Biases ◽  
High Calorie

AbstractWhen we buy our food, the information on the package informs us about the properties of the product, such as its taste and healthiness. These beliefs can influence the processing of food rewards and impact decision making beyond objective sensory properties. However, no studies, within or beyond the food domain, have assessed how written information, such as food labels, affect implicit motivation to obtain rewards, even though choices in daily life might be strongly driven by implicit motivational biases. We investigated how written information affects implicit motivation to obtain food rewards. We used food labels (high- and low-calorie), associated with an identical lemonade, to study motivation for food rewards during fMRI. In a joystick task, hungry participants (N=31) were instructed to make fast approach or avoid movements to earn the cued drinks. Behaviorally, we found a general approach bias, which was stronger for the drink that was most preferred during a subsequent choice test, i.e. the one labeled as low-calorie. This behavioral effect was accompanied by increased BOLD signal in the sensorimotor cortex during the response phase of the task for the preferred, low-calorie drink compared with the non-preferred, high-calorie drink. During the anticipation phase, the non-preferred, high-calorie drink label elicited stronger fMRI signal in the right ventral anterior insula, a region associated with aversion and taste intensity, than the preferred, low-calorie label. Together, these data suggest that high-calorie labeling can increase avoidance of drinks and reduce neural activity in brain regions associated with motor control. In conclusion, we show effects of food labeling on fMRI responses during anticipation and subsequent motivated action and on behavior, in the absence of objective taste differences, demonstrating the influence of written information on implicit biases. These findings contribute to our understanding of implicit biases in real-life eating behavior.

scholarly journals Anticipated Food Scarcity and Food Preferences: Ph.D. thesis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Folwarczny
Keyword(s):  
Food Preferences ◽  
Recent Decade ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Video Content ◽  
Low Calorie ◽  
Choice Context ◽  
Food Scarcity ◽  
Food Sufficiency ◽  
Hostile Environments

In the recent decade, marketing literature has acknowledged the advantages of applying an evolutionary lens to understand consumer behavior in different domains. Food choice context is one such domain, having implications for societal well-being, especially for public health and addressing environmental issues. In this thesis, I investigate how mechanisms that have emerged as adaptations to food scarcity—frequent throughout human history—affect modern consumers’ food preferences, potentially leading to maladaptive outcomes. In Paper I, we highlight that selection pressures adjusted humans to forage in ancestral, hostile environments when they were wandering between periods of food scarcity and food sufficiency. Consequently, consumers often fail to choose foods appropriate to their current needs in contemporary retail contexts. Rather than attempting to override these hardwired and evolutionarily outdated food preferences, we recommend policymakers leverage them in such a way that facilitates healthier food choices. A series of studies reported in Paper II show that exposing people to climate changeinduced food scarcity distant in time and space shifts their current food preferences. Specifically, people exposed to such video content exhibit a stronger preference toward energy-dense (vs. low-calorie) foods than their peers exposed to a control video. In Paper III, we aimed to account for potential confounds stemming from the control video used in studies reported in Paper II. Additionally, we strived to conceptually replicate these earlier findings by exposing participants to subtle cues to food scarcity—a winter forest walk. Although not all studies yielded significant results at conventional levels, this empirical package—when taken together—corroborated the earlier findings. Despite that studies described in Papers II–III provided a shred of empirical evidence showing a potency of food scarcity cues in increasing preferences toward energy-dense (vs. low-calorie) products, it was still unclear what drove such a shift in food liking. Thus, in Paper IV, we have developed and psychometrically validated the Anticipated Food Scarcity Scale (AFSS), measuring the degree to which people perceive food resources as becoming less available in the future. Aside from being a candidate mechanism partially explaining findings reported in Papers II–III, anticipated food scarcity (AFS) is also related to some aspects of prosociality. Studies presented in this thesis suggest that when environmental cues to food scarcity are present, people show a stronger preference toward energy-dense (vs. low-calorie) foods than their peers unexposed to such cues. Policymakers should consider these results when designing climate change and other similar campaigns, as such communication often depicts food scarcity. Additional research may explore the possibility that exposure to food scarcity cues affects food choices. Considering that we found AFS correlated with certain prosocial attitudes, it is a new psychological construct that warrants future investigation through multidisciplinary research.

scholarly journals Anticipated Food Scarcity and Food Preferences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Folwarczny
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Preferences ◽  
Recent Decade ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Video Content ◽  
Low Calorie ◽  
Choice Context ◽  
Food Scarcity ◽  
Hostile Environments

In the recent decade, marketing literature has acknowledged the advantages of applying an evolutionary lens to understand consumer behavior in different domains. Food choice context is one such domain, having implications for societal well-being, especially for public health and addressing environmental issues. In this thesis, I investigate how mechanisms that have emerged as adaptations to food scarcity—frequent throughout human history—affect modern consumers’ food preferences, potentially leading to maladaptive outcomes. In Paper I, we highlight that selection pressures adjusted humans to forage in ancestral, hostile environments when they were wandering between periods of food scarcity and food sufficiency. Consequently, consumers often fail to choose foods appropriate to their current needs in contemporary retail contexts. Rather than attempting to override these hardwired and evolutionarily outdated food preferences, we recommend policymakers leverage them in such a way that facilitates healthier food choices. A series of studies reported in Paper II show that exposing people to climate change-induced food scarcity distant in time and space shifts their current food preferences. Specifically, people exposed to such video content exhibit a stronger preference toward energy-dense (vs. low-calorie) foods than their peers exposed to a control video. In Paper III, we aimed to account for potential confounds stemming from the control video used in studies reported in Paper II. Additionally, we strived to conceptually replicate these earlier findings by exposing participants to subtle cues to food scarcity—a winter forest walk. Although not all studies yielded significant results at conventional levels, this empirical package—when taken together—corroborated the earlier findings. Despite that studies described in Papers II–III provided a shred of empirical evidence showing a potency of food scarcity cues in increasing preferences toward energy-dense (vs. low-calorie) products, it was still unclear what drove such a shift in food liking. Thus, in Paper IV, we have developed and psychometrically validated the Anticipated Food Scarcity Scale (AFSS), measuring the degree to which people perceive food resources as becoming less available in the future. Aside from being a candidate mechanism partially explaining findings reported in Papers II–III, anticipated food scarcity (AFS) is also related to some aspects of prosociality. Studies presented in this thesis suggest that when environmental cues to food scarcity are present, people show a stronger preference toward energy-dense (vs. low-calorie) foods than their peers unexposed to such cues. Policymakers should consider these results when designing climate change and other similar campaigns, as such communication often depicts food scarcity. Additional research may explore the possibility that exposure to food scarcity cues affects food choices. Considering that we found AFS correlated with certain prosocial attitudes, it is a new psychological construct that warrants future investigation through multidisciplinary research.

scholarly journals Influencing Food Choices by Training: Evidence for Modulation of Frontoparietal Control Signals

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Schonberg ◽  
Akram Bakkour ◽  
Ashleigh M. Hover ◽  
Jeanette A. Mumford ◽  
Russell A. Poldrack
Keyword(s):  
Food Preferences ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Obesity Epidemic ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Control Signals ◽  
Extensive Training ◽  
Subjective Value ◽  
Parietal Cortices

To overcome unhealthy behaviors, one must be able to make better choices. Changing food preferences is an important strategy in addressing the obesity epidemic and its accompanying public health risks. However, little is known about how food preferences can be effectively affected and what neural systems support such changes. In this study, we investigated a novel extensive training paradigm where participants chose from specific pairs of palatable junk food items and were rewarded for choosing the items with lower subjective value over higher value ones. In a later probe phase, when choices were made for real consumption, participants chose the lower-valued item more often in the trained pairs compared with untrained pairs. We replicated the behavioral results in an independent sample of participants while they were scanned with fMRI. We found that, as training progressed, there was decreased recruitment of regions that have been previously associated with cognitive control, specifically the left dorsolateral pFC and bilateral parietal cortices. Furthermore, we found that connectivity of the left dorsolateral pFC was greater with primary motor regions by the end of training for choices of lower-valued items that required exertion of self-control, suggesting a formation of a stronger stimulus–response association. These findings demonstrate that it is possible to influence food choices through training and that this training is associated with a decreasing need for top–down frontoparietal control. The results suggest that training paradigms may be promising as the basis for interventions to influence real-world food preferences.

Inefficient Encoding as an Explanation for Age-Related Deficits in Recollection-Based Processing

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 148-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Friedman ◽  
Ray Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Semantic Retrieval ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Face ◽  
Episodic Memories

A cardinal feature of aging is a decline in episodic memory (EM). Nevertheless, there is evidence that some older adults may be able to “compensate” for failures in recollection-based processing by recruiting brain regions and cognitive processes not normally recruited by the young. We review the evidence suggesting that age-related declines in EM performance and recollection-related brain activity (left-parietal EM effect; LPEM) are due to altered processing at encoding. We describe results from our laboratory on differences in encoding- and retrieval-related activity between young and older adults. We then show that, relative to the young, in older adults brain activity at encoding is reduced over a brain region believed to be crucial for successful semantic elaboration in a 400–1,400-ms interval (left inferior prefrontal cortex, LIPFC; Johnson, Nessler, & Friedman, 2013 ; Nessler, Friedman, Johnson, & Bersick, 2007 ; Nessler, Johnson, Bersick, & Friedman, 2006 ). This reduced brain activity is associated with diminished subsequent recognition-memory performance and the LPEM at retrieval. We provide evidence for this premise by demonstrating that disrupting encoding-related processes during this 400–1,400-ms interval in young adults affords causal support for the hypothesis that the reduction over LIPFC during encoding produces the hallmarks of an age-related EM deficit: normal semantic retrieval at encoding, reduced subsequent episodic recognition accuracy, free recall, and the LPEM. Finally, we show that the reduced LPEM in young adults is associated with “additional” brain activity over similar brain areas as those activated when older adults show deficient retrieval. Hence, rather than supporting the compensation hypothesis, these data are more consistent with the scaffolding hypothesis, in which the recruitment of additional cognitive processes is an adaptive response across the life span in the face of momentary increases in task demand due to poorly-encoded episodic memories.

Dispositional Properties of Metaphor

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam K. Fetterman ◽  
Brian P. Meier ◽  
Michael D. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Positive Affect ◽  
Food Preferences ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Taste Preferences ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Prosocial Motivation ◽  
Sweet Food ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Sweet Foods ◽  
Dispositional Properties

Abstract. Metaphors often characterize prosocial actions and people as sweet. Three studies sought to explore whether conceptual metaphors of this type can provide insights into the prosocial trait of agreeableness and into daily life prosociality. Study 1 (n = 698) examined relationships between agreeableness and food taste preferences. Studies 2 (n = 66) and 3 (n = 132) utilized daily diary protocols. In Study 1, more agreeable people liked sweet foods to a greater extent. In Study 2, greater sweet food preferences predicted a stronger positive relationship between daily prosocial behaviors and positive affect, a pattern consistent with prosocial motivation. Finally, Study 3 found that daily prosocial feelings and behaviors varied positively with sweet food consumption in a manner that could not be ascribed to positive affect or self-control. Altogether, the findings encourage further efforts to extend conceptual metaphor theory to the domain of personality processes, in part by building on balance-related ideas.

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