It is a matter of perspective: Attentional focus rather than dietary restraint drives brain responses to food stimuli
Sarah Kochs,
Sieske Franssen,
Leonardo Pimpini,
Job van den Hurk,
Giancarlo Valente,
Alard Roebroeck,
Anita Jansen,
Anne Roefs
Affiliations
Sarah Kochs
Corresponding author at: Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University. P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, the Netherlands.; Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
Sieske Franssen
Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
Leonardo Pimpini
Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
Job van den Hurk
Scannexus, Maastricht, the Netherlands; Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
Giancarlo Valente
Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
Alard Roebroeck
Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
Anita Jansen
Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
Anne Roefs
Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
Brain responses to food are thought to reflect food's rewarding value and to fluctuate with dietary restraint. We propose that brain responses to food are dynamic and depend on attentional focus. Food pictures (high-caloric/low-caloric, palatable/unpalatable) were presented during fMRI-scanning, while attentional focus (hedonic/health/neutral) was induced in 52 female participants varying in dietary restraint. The level of brain activity was hardly different between palatable versus unpalatable foods or high-caloric versus low-caloric foods. Activity in several brain regions was higher in hedonic than in health or neutral attentional focus (p < .05, FWE-corrected). Palatability and calorie content could be decoded from multi-voxel activity patterns (p < .05, FDR-corrected). Dietary restraint did not significantly influence brain responses to food. So, level of brain activity in response to food stimuli depends on attentional focus, and may reflect salience, not reward value. Palatability and calorie content are reflected in patterns of brain activity.
