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An event-related potential study of consumers' responses to food bundles.
Qiu, R, Qi, Y, Wan, X
Appetite. 2020;:104538
Abstract
We conducted two event-related potentials (ERP) experiments to investigate consumers' responses to different types of food bundles. In Experiment 1, the participants were instructed to indicate their wanting of a three-yogurt bundle when their neural activity was recorded. The results of self-report wanting scores revealed that the participants wanted bundles consisting of their favorite yogurt products more than those of disliked products. Such a difference in self-report scores was also indexed by the N2 in frontal brain and the P1 in the left hemisphere. By contrast, bundles consisting of three different yogurt products elicited a smaller amplitude of the N2 than bundles consisting of two favorite products and one disliked product, but these two types of bundles received comparable wanting scores. Moreover, we asked the participants in Experiment 2 to perform a visual discrimination task on these bundles, and did not found these effects on the N2 or the P1. Collectively, these results revealed neural activities underlying consumers' responses to food rewards, and demonstrated the role of individuals' variety-seeking tendency in wanting process.
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Neurobehavioral Outcomes 11 Years After Neonatal Caffeine Therapy for Apnea of Prematurity.
Mürner-Lavanchy, IM, Doyle, LW, Schmidt, B, Roberts, RS, Asztalos, EV, Costantini, L, Davis, PG, Dewey, D, D'Ilario, J, Grunau, RE, et al
Pediatrics. 2018;(5)
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Caffeine is effective in the treatment of apnea of prematurity. Although caffeine therapy has a benefit on gross motor skills in school-aged children, effects on neurobehavioral outcomes are not fully understood. We aimed to investigate effects of neonatal caffeine therapy in very low birth weight (500-1250 g) infants on neurobehavioral outcomes in 11-year-old participants of the Caffeine for Apnea of Prematurity trial. METHODS Thirteen academic hospitals in Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and Sweden participated in this part of the 11-year follow-up of the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Measures of general intelligence, attention, executive function, visuomotor integration and perception, and behavior were obtained in up to 870 children. The effects of caffeine therapy were assessed by using regression models. RESULTS Neurobehavioral outcomes were generally similar for both the caffeine and placebo group. The caffeine group performed better than the placebo group in fine motor coordination (mean difference [MD] = 2.9; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.7 to 5.1; P = .01), visuomotor integration (MD = 1.8; 95% CI: 0.0 to 3.7; P < .05), visual perception (MD = 2.0; 95% CI: 0.3 to 3.8; P = .02), and visuospatial organization (MD = 1.2; 95% CI: 0.4 to 2.0; P = .003). CONCLUSIONS Neonatal caffeine therapy for apnea of prematurity improved visuomotor, visuoperceptual, and visuospatial abilities at age 11 years. General intelligence, attention, and behavior were not adversely affected by caffeine, which highlights the long-term safety of caffeine therapy for apnea of prematurity in very low birth weight neonates.
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The effect of ketamine on configural facial processing.
MBSc, EN, Joshua, N, Morgan, C, Rossell, SL
Journal of clinical psychopharmacology. 2015;(2):188-91
Abstract
Ketamine can induce a transient psychosis via its influence on ionotropic N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors. Unlike dopamine agonists, which specifically mimic the positive symptoms seen in psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia, ketamine may provide a better model because it is able to induce not only positive symptoms but also schizophrenia-like cognitive and negative symptoms. To test the veracity of the ketamine model further, research is attempting to replicate a range of cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia in healthy controls under the influence of ketamine. Facial processing is one area that is impaired in schizophrenia. More specifically, research suggests that schizophrenia is associated with a reduced facial inversion effect reflecting abnormalities in configural face processing. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether ketamine would also reduce the facial inversion effect. This study was a double-blind, placebo-controlled repeated-measures design in which data are presented for 14 participants who received ketamine on one occasion and saline on another. The results supported the ketamine model, with the participants demonstrating an intact inversion effect in the placebo condition but no inversion effect under the influence of ketamine. Further, participants' self-reported deficits in visual processing correlated with their inversion score and errors on the faces task. Future studies should examine a wider range of facial processing tasks with a larger sample to confirm the current results and to determine the specificity of ketamine's ability to mimic schizophrenia facial processing deficits. The current study is supportive of the role of glutamate system in the processing of configural face information.
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Suppressive responses by visual food cues in postprandial activities of insular cortex as revealed by magnetoencephalography.
Yoshikawa, T, Tanaka, M, Ishii, A, Watanabe, Y
Brain research. 2014;:31-41
Abstract
'Hara-Hachibu' in Japanese means a subjective sense by which we stop eating just before the motivation to eat is completely lost, a similar concept to caloric restriction (CR). Insular cortex is a critical platform which integrates sensory information into decision-making processes in eating behavior. We compared the responses of insular cortex, as assessed by magnetoencephalography (MEG), immediately after presentation of food images in the Fasting condition with those in the 'Hara-Hachibu' condition. Eleven healthy, right-handed males [age, 27.2±9.6 years; body mass index, 22.6±2.1kg/m(2) (mean±SD)] were enrolled in a randomized, two-crossover experiment (Fasting and 'Hara-Hachibu' conditions). Before the MEG recordings in the 'Hara-Hachibu' condition, the participants consumed rice balls as much as they judged themselves to have consumed shortly before reaching satiety. During the MEG recordings, they viewed food pictures projected on a screen. The intensities of MEG responses to viewing food pictures were significantly lower in the 'Hara-Hachibu' condition than those in the Fasting condition (P<0.05). The intensities of the MEG responses to the visual food stimuli in the 'Hara-Hachibu' condition was positively associated with the factor-3 (food tasted) (r=0.693, P=0.018) and aggregated scores (r=0.659, P=0.027) of the Power of Food Scale, a self-report measure of hedonic hunger. These findings may help to elucidate the neural basis of variability of appetite phenotypes under the condition of CR among individuals, and to develop possible strategies for the maintenance of adequate CR in daily life.
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A NO way to BOLD? Dietary nitrate alters the hemodynamic response to visual stimulation.
Aamand, R, Dalsgaard, T, Ho, YC, Møller, A, Roepstorff, A, Lund, TE
NeuroImage. 2013;:397-407
Abstract
Neurovascular coupling links neuronal activity to vasodilation. Nitric oxide (NO) is a potent vasodilator, and in neurovascular coupling NO production from NO synthases plays an important role. However, another pathway for NO production also exists, namely the nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway. On this basis, we hypothesized that dietary nitrate (NO3-) could influence the brain's hemodynamic response to neuronal stimulation. In the present study, 20 healthy male participants were given either sodium nitrate (NaNO3) or sodium chloride (NaCl) (saline placebo) in a crossover study and were shown visual stimuli based on the retinotopic characteristics of the visual cortex. Our primary measure of the hemodynamic response was the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response measured with high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (0.64×0.64×1.8 mm) in the visual cortex. From this response, we made a direct estimate of key parameters characterizing the shape of the BOLD response (i.e. lag and amplitude). During elevated nitrate intake, corresponding to the nitrate content of a large plate of salad, both the hemodynamic lag and the BOLD amplitude decreased significantly (7.0±2% and 7.9±4%, respectively), and the variation across activated voxels of both measures decreased (12.3±4% and 15.3±7%, respectively). The baseline cerebral blood flow was not affected by nitrate. Our experiments demonstrate, for the first time, that dietary nitrate may modulate the local cerebral hemodynamic response to stimuli. A faster and smaller BOLD response, with less variation across local cortex, is consistent with an enhanced hemodynamic coupling during elevated nitrate intake. These findings suggest that dietary patterns, via the nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway, may be a potential way to affect key properties of neurovascular coupling. This could have major clinical implications, which remain to be explored.
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Regional brain response to visual food cues is a marker of satiety that predicts food choice.
Mehta, S, Melhorn, SJ, Smeraglio, A, Tyagi, V, Grabowski, T, Schwartz, MW, Schur, EA
The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2012;(5):989-99
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Abstract
BACKGROUND Neuronal processes that underlie the subjective experience of satiety after a meal are not well defined. OBJECTIVE We investigated how satiety alters the perception of and neural response to visual food cues. DESIGN Normal-weight participants (10 men, 13 women) underwent 2 fMRI scans while viewing images of high-calorie food that was previously rated as incompatible with weight loss and "fattening" and low-calorie, "nonfattening" food. After a fasting fMRI scan, participants ate a standardized breakfast and underwent reimaging at a randomly assigned time 15-300 min after breakfast to vary the degree of satiety. Measures of subjective appetite, food appeal, and ad libitum food intake (measured after the second fMRI scan) were correlated with activation by "fattening" (compared with "nonfattening") food cues in a priori regions of interest. RESULTS Greater hunger correlated with higher appeal ratings of "fattening" (r = 0.46, P = 0.03) but not "nonfattening" (r = -0.20, P = 0.37) foods. Fasting amygdalar activation was negatively associated with fullness (left: r = -0.52; right: r = -0.58; both P ≤ 0.01), whereas postbreakfast fullness was positively correlated with activation in the dorsal striatum (right: r = 0.44; left: r = 0.45; both P < 0.05). After breakfast, participants with greater activation in 4 regions-medial orbital frontal cortex (r = 0.49, P < 0.05), left amygdala (r = 0.49, P < 0.05), left insula (r = 0.47, P < 0.05), and nucleus accumbens (right: r = 0.57, P < 0.01; left: r = 0.43, P < 0.05)-chose buffet foods with higher fat content. CONCLUSIONS Postmeal satiety is shown in regional brain activation by images of high-calorie foods. Regions including the amygdala, nucleus accumbens, and dorsal striatum may alter perception of, and reduce motivation to consume, energy-rich foods, ultimately driving food choice. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01631045.
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Posttraining transcranial magnetic stimulation of striate cortex disrupts consolidation early in visual skill learning.
De Weerd, P, Reithler, J, van de Ven, V, Been, M, Jacobs, C, Sack, AT
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 2012;(6):1981-8
Abstract
Practice-induced improvements in skilled performance reflect "offline " consolidation processes extending beyond daily training sessions. According to visual learning theories, an early, fast learning phase driven by high-level areas is followed by a late, asymptotic learning phase driven by low-level, retinotopic areas when higher resolution is required. Thus, low-level areas would not contribute to learning and offline consolidation until late learning. Recent studies have challenged this notion, demonstrating modified responses to trained stimuli in primary visual cortex (V1) and offline activity after very limited training. However, the behavioral relevance of modified V1 activity for offline consolidation of visual skill memory in V1 after early training sessions remains unclear. Here, we used neuronavigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) directed to a trained retinotopic V1 location to test for behaviorally relevant consolidation in human low-level visual cortex. Applying TMS to the trained V1 location within 45 min of the first or second training session strongly interfered with learning, as measured by impaired performance the next day. The interference was conditional on task context and occurred only when training in the location targeted by TMS was followed by training in a second location before TMS. In this condition, high-level areas may become coupled to the second location and uncoupled from the previously trained low-level representation, thereby rendering consolidation vulnerable to interference. Our data show that, during the earliest phases of skill learning in the lowest-level visual areas, a behaviorally relevant form of consolidation exists of which the robustness is controlled by high-level, contextual factors.
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The functional BDNF Val66Met polymorphism affects functions of pre-attentive visual sensory memory processes.
Beste, C, Schneider, D, Epplen, JT, Arning, L
Neuropharmacology. 2011;(2-3):467-71
Abstract
The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a member of the neurotrophin family, is involved in nerve growth and survival. Especially, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the BDNF gene, Val66Met, has gained a lot of attention, because of its effect on activity-dependent BDNF secretion and its link to impaired memory processes. We hypothesize that the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism may have modulatory effects on the visual sensory (iconic) memory performance. Two hundred and eleven healthy German students (106 female and 105 male) were included in the data analysis. Since BDNF is also discussed to be involved in the pathogenesis of depression, we additionally tested for possible interactions with depressive mood. The BDNF Val66Met polymorphism significantly influenced iconic-memory performance, with the combined Val/Met-Met/Met genotype group revealing less time stability of information stored in iconic memory than the Val/Val group. Furthermore, this stability was positively correlated with depressive mood exclusively in the Val/Val genotype group. Thus, these results show that the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism has an effect on pre-attentive visual sensory memory processes.
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The effect of prenatal drug exposure and caregiving context on children's performance on a task of sustained visual attention.
Ackerman, JP, Llorente, AM, Black, MM, Ackerman, CS, Mayes, LA, Nair, P
Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBP. 2008;(6):467-74
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Abstract
OBJECTIVES Three groups of children from low-income, urban environments were examined to determine the effects of prenatal drug exposure (PDE) and caregiving environment on sustained visual attention (SVA) at 7 years of age. METHODS Drug-exposed children remaining in maternal care (n = 43), drug-exposed children placed in nonmaternal care (n = 45), and community comparison (CC) children (n = 56) were administered a battery of neurocognitive tests, including the Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT). RESULTS PDE children remaining in maternal care displayed more omission errors than CC children. PDE children in nonmaternal care had intermediate scores that did not differ significantly from PDE children in maternal care or CC children. There were no group differences with respect to commission errors or reaction time. CPT errors of omission and commission were significantly correlated with parent-reported attention problems and academic achievement scores. CONCLUSIONS PDE in the context of care provided by a maternal caregiver with persistent drug use patterns may contribute to problems in children's SVA at school-age. As parental drug abuse can interfere with the provision of early care, children raised in a drug-using context may be highly vulnerable to problems with self-regulation, including sustained attention. SVA problems may contribute to subsequent academic and behavioral problems as demands for concentration and sustained effort increase throughout childhood. Children who have been prenatally exposed to drugs or raised in a drug-using household may benefit from early intervention services to avoid problems in SVA that may interfere with subsequent neurocognitive functioning and academic performance.
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A synergic effect between lowered serotonin and novel situations on impulsivity measured by CPT.
Walderhaug, E, Landrø, NI, Magnusson, A
Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology. 2008;(2):204-11
Abstract
Rapid tryptophan depletion studies investigate serotonin using amino acid precursor depletion, which transiently reduces the brain level of serotonin. This study compares the effects of serotonin reduction given on the first test day (when the situation is novel) with the effects of serotonin reduction given on the second test day (when the environment and test battery are familiar). A total of 24 healthy young males were given either active tryptophan depletion or placebo in this randomized cross-over design, while impulsivity was measured by a continuous performance test. The participants showed more impulsive responses and reduced attention during tryptophan depletion, but only when this was given on the first test day when the task was novel. This could be caused by a synergic effect between novel situations and reduced neurotransmission of serotonin.