Nudging Healthy Choices in Food Search Through Visual Attractiveness

Recipe websites are becoming increasingly popular to support people in their home cooking. However, most of these websites prioritize popular recipes, which tend to be unhealthy. Drawing upon research on visual biases and nudges, this paper investigates whether healthy food choices can be supported in food search by depicting attractive images alongside recipes, as well as by re-ranking search results on health. After modelling the visual attractiveness of recipe images, we asked 239 users to search for specific online recipes and to select those they liked the most. Our analyses revealed that users tended to choose a healthier recipe if a visually attractive image was depicted alongside it, as well as if it was listed at the top of a list of search results. Even though less popular recipes were promoted this way, it did not come at the cost of a user’s level of satisfaction.

LH LepR neurons directly drive sustained food seeking behavior after AgRP neuronal deactivation via neuromodulation of NPY

1.AbstractAgouti-related protein (AgRP) has been believed to be the main driver of feeding behaviors ever since its discovery. However, recent studies using fiber photometry and optogenetics proved that feeding behaviors are not directly driven by AgRP neurons (temporal discrepancy between neuronal activity and behavior). To resolve this paradox, we conducted novel multi-phase feeding experiments to scrutinize the dynamics of AgRP. Fiber photometry study showed that AgRP neurons start to deactivate even before the initiation of the food search phase. Using optogenetics, we could prove that the feeding behavior induced by AgRP neuron activation had substantial temporal delay and the feeding behavior was sustained for substantial time even after cessation of optogenetic activation. These results indicate that AgRP neurons are not the direct driver of feeding behavior and another downstream neuron is the driver of feeding behavior. Leptin receptor (LepR) neurons in the lateral hypothalamus (LH). LH LepR neurons were activated before voluntary food search behavior initiation and showed robust increase after food approach behavior. Artificial activation of LH LepR neurons drives food search and food approach behavior. In accordance, chemogenetic activation of LepR neurons increased food search and food approach behaviors. Lastly, slice calcium imaging results showed the possibility that NPY from the AgRP neurons could be the downstream neuromodulator of AgRP neuron, driving LH LepR neuron activation. Overall, our study shows that AgRP neurons are not the direct drivers of feeding behavior, whereas LH LepR neurons directly drive sustained food seeking behavior.

FOOD SEARCH AND CONSUMPTION AND ITS RELATION TO AGGRESSIVE RESPONSES IN PIGEONS.

The aim of this experiment was to describe the relation between the emission and reception of aggressive responses, as well as the occurrence of food discovery and consumption responses in a social foraging situation in which the spatial distribution of food was varied. During five sessions, groups of pigeons (n=5) were exposed to a wood platform with 12 sealed containers, of which 4 contained food (full). For the Proximal Group the full containers were spatially adjacent to one another and for the Distal Group the containers were spatially separated. In each group only one subject discovered food consistently, but all of the members consumed food. The aggressive responses were higher in subjects that consumed less food and the reception of aggressive responses was higher for subjects that consumed more food. The data were analyzed in terms of the Hawk/Dove game described by Sirot (2000).