Why your brain makes you reach for junk food
New study examines link between brain cortex and food buying habits
2014-10-20
(Press-News.org) Will that be a pizza for you or will you go for a salad? Choosing what you eat is not simply a matter of taste, conclude scientists in a new study at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital of McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre. As you glance over a menu or peruse the shelves in a supermarket, your brain is making decisions based more on a food's caloric content.
The study, published in Psychological Science, is based on brain scans of healthy participants who were asked to examine pictures of various foods. Participants rated which foods they would like to consume and were asked to estimate the calorie content of each food. Surprisingly, they were poor at accurately judging the number of calories in the various foods, but their choices and their willingness to pay still centered on those foods with higher caloric content.
"Earlier studies found that children and adults tend to choose high-calorie food" says Dr. Alain Dagher, neurologist at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital and lead author of the study. "The easy availability and low cost of high-calorie food has been blamed for the rise in obesity. Their consumption is largely governed by the anticipated effects of these foods, which are likely learned through experience. Our study sought to determine how people's awareness of caloric content influenced the brain areas known to be implicated in evaluating food options. We found that brain activity tracked the true caloric content of foods."
Decisions about food consumption and caloric density are linked to a part of the brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, an area that encodes the value of stimuli and predicts immediate consumption.
Understanding the reasons for people's food choices could help to control the factors that lead to obesity, a condition affecting 1 in 4 Canadian adults and 1 in 10 children. Obesity is linked to many health problems including high blood pressure, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Treating Canadians who have these problems costs billions of tax health dollars.
This work was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Link to paper in Psychological Science (publication of the Association for Psychological Sciences): http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/10/08/0956797614552081.abstract
The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, is a unique academic medical centre dedicated to neuroscience. Founded in 1934 by the renowned Dr. Wilder Penfield, the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital is recognized internationally for integrating research, compassionate patient care and advanced training, all key to advances in science and medicine. The MNI is a research and teaching institute of McGill University and the MNH forms the basis for the Neuroscience Mission of the McGill University Health Centre. MNI researchers are world leaders in cellular and molecular neuroscience, brain imaging, cognitive neuroscience and the study and treatment of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and neuromuscular disorders. For more information, visit theneuro.com.
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2014-10-20
A newly described tarantula species from Western Brazilian Amazonia was named Bumba lennoni in honor of John Lennon, a founder member of the legendary band the Beatles. The new species is part of the tarantula family Theraphosidae which comprises the largest spider species in the world. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.
The name of the new species came across when the authors of the study Fernando Pérez-Miles, from the University of the Republic, Uruguay, and Alexandre Bonaldo and Laura Miglio, both from the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, ...
2014-10-20
As you glance over a menu or peruse the shelves in a supermarket, you may be thinking about how each food will taste and whether it's nutritious, or you may be trying to decide what you're in the mood for. A new neuroimaging study suggests that while you're thinking all these things, an internal calorie counter of sorts is also evaluating each food based on its caloric density.
The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
"Earlier studies found that children and adults tend to choose high-calorie food," ...
2014-10-20
This news release is available in German. Leipzig. Artificial light increases foraging time in blackbirds. Birds in city centres are active not just considerably earlier, but also for longer than their relatives in darker parts of the city. That is the result of a study of around 200 blackbirds in Leipzig, which was carried out in the framework of the "Loss of the Night" research project. The study showed that artificial light has a considerable influence on the activity times of blackbirds in the city and therefore on their natural cycles, according to scientists of ...
2014-10-20
New Rochelle, NY, October 20, 2014—Interleukin-27 (IL-27), a member of the interleukin family of cytokines that help regulate the immune system, has a mainly anti-inflammatory role in the body, and its dysfunction has been implicated in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease. More recently, IL-27's proinflammatory activity and role in chronic inflammatory diseases is becoming increasingly clear, and a new Review article that explores the potential to target a range of diseases that share common IL-27-activated mechanisms is presented in ...
2014-10-20
CHICAGO – Oct. 18, 2014 – A smartphone-based tool may be an effective alternative to traditional ophthalmic imaging equipment in evaluating and grading severity of a diabetic eye disease, according to a study released today at AAO 2014, the American Academy of Ophthalmology's 118th annual meeting. The results of the research indicate the lower-cost method could be useful for bringing the service to patients in isolated or underserved communities.
Approximately 7.7 million Americans have diabetic retinopathy, which is caused by elevated blood glucose (sugar) ...
2014-10-20
Boulder, CO, USA — Naturally occurring asbestos minerals may be more widespread than previously thought, with newly discovered sources now identified within the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The asbestos-rich areas are in locations not previously considered to be at risk, according to new report that will be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA) in Vancouver, Canada, on Sunday, 20 October.
"These minerals were found where one wouldn't expect or think to look," said Rodney Metcalf, associate professor of geology at the University ...
2014-10-20
Berlin, 20 October 2014 Fear of bright daylight is associated with panic disorder, according to new presented at the ECNP congress in Berlin.
Panic disorder is where a person has recurring and regular panic attacks. In the UK, it affects about two in 100 people, and it's about twice as common in women as it is in men1. Previous studies have shown that there is a strong seasonal component in panic disorder, but this is the first study to look specifically at panic disorder patients' reactions to light.
A group of researchers from the University of Siena (Italy) compared ...
2014-10-20
Berlin, 20 October 2014 Up to half of patients who suffer from depression (Major Depressive Disorder, or MDD) do not respond to treatment with SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors). Now a group of Dutch researchers have carried out a study which shows that increasing fatty fish intake appears to increase the response rate in patients who do not respond to antidepressants. This work is being presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology congress in Berlin.
According to lead researcher, Roel Mocking (Amsterdam):
"We were looking for biological ...
2014-10-20
Berlin, 20 October 2014 A new study shows that some anti-inflammatory medicines, such as aspirin, estrogen, and Fluimucil, can improve the efficacy of existing schizophrenia treatments. This work is being presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology conference in Berlin.
For some time, doctors have believed that helping the immune system may benefit the treatment of schizophrenia, but until now there has been no conclusive evidence that this would be effective. Now a group of researchers at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands has carried out ...
2014-10-20
CHICAGO – Oct. 19, 2014 – The results of the largest retrospective study of multiple sclerosis (MS) in uveitis patients has revealed that nearly 60 percent of patients with both diseases were diagnosed with each within a five-year span. The study is being presented today at AAO 2014, the 118th annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. While it has long been known that there is an association between the eye condition and MS, this is the first study to provide a detailed description of the relative onset of uveitis and MS and to calculate the ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Why your brain makes you reach for junk food
New study examines link between brain cortex and food buying habits
