Individual Differences in Reward Drive Predict Neural Responses to Images of Food

By John D. Beaver, Andrew D. Lawrence, Jenneke van Ditzhuijzen, Matt H. Davis, Andrew N. Woods, Andrew J. Calder. Journal of Neuroscience, 2006

614 citations recorded by the source corpus.

A network of interconnected brain regions, including orbitofrontal, ventral striatal, amygdala, and midbrain areas, has been widely implicated in a number of aspects of food reward. However, in humans, sensitivity to reward can vary significantly from one person to the next. Individuals high in this trait experience more frequent and intense food cravings and are more likely to be overweight or develop eating disorders associated with excessive food intake. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we report that individual variation in trait reward sensitivity (as measured by the Behavioral Activation Scale) is highly correlated with activation to images of appetizing foods (e.g., chocolate cake, pizza) in a fronto–striatal–amygdala–midbrain network. Our findings demonstrate that there is considerable personality-linked variability in the neural response to food cues in healthy participants and provide important insight into the neurobiological factors underlying vulnerability to certain eating problems (e.g., hyperphagic obesity).

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology, Endocrine and Autonomic Systems

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9afcabaf1d10e62b5821fe7cce0fe0cac8835e6d

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Citations in the corpus

Affective neuroscience of pleasure: reward in humans and animals (2008, background): “…understand how components are assembled by larger limbic circuits into an integrated reward system (Baldo and Kelley 2007; Balleine and Killcross 2006; Beaver et al. 2006; Burke et al. 2008; Di Chiara and Bassareo 2007; Evans et al. 2006; Everitt and Robbins 2005; Izard 2007; Koob and Le Moal…”
Reward Mechanisms in Obesity: New Insights and Future Directions (2011, background): “Consistent with this hypothesis, individuals with high levels of trait reward sensitivity display enhanced activity in brain regions implicated in food reward, including the NAc, amygdala, OFC, and VP, upon exposure to palatable food like chocolate cake and pizza (Beaver et al., 2006).”
The tempted brain eats: pleasure and desire circuits in obesity and eating disorders. (2010, neutral): “Final evidence that ventral pallidum mediates hedonic impact of ‘liked’ sensations is that the firing levels of neurons in the posterior hedonic hotspot code ‘liking’ for sweet, salty and other food rewards (Aldridge et al., 1993; Aldridge and Berridge, 2010; Beaver et al., 2006; Calder et al., 2007”
Widespread reward-system activation in obese women in response to pictures of high-calorie foods (2008, positive): “Comparisons of activation elicited by food images compared to non-food images for our control participants revealed results generally similar to those of previous neuroimaging studies, which have found activation in response to visual food-related stimuli in similar reward and associated areas (Aran”
The Effect of an Impulsive Personality on Overeating and Obesity: Current State of Affairs (2008, background): “Moreover, healthy individuals who were more sensitive to reward according to a self-report questionnaire turned out to have more pronounced neural responses to images of appetizing food (Beaver et al., 2006).”
‘Liking’ and ‘wanting’ food rewards: Brain substrates and roles in eating disorders (2009, result): “These effects seem consistent with the findings of several other laboratories on the importance of ventral pallidum in food and drug and other rewards [92] [93] [94] [95] [96] [97] [98].”
Individual Differences in Marketing Placebo Effects: Evidence from Brain Imaging and Behavioral Experiments (2015, result): “This prediction was based on our finding in Study 1 that higher gray matter volume in the striatum was linked to higher MPE responsiveness and also that striatal activity has been linked in overlapping regions to reward seeking (Beaver et al. 2006; Schweinhardt et al. 2009).”
From prediction error to incentive salience: mesolimbic computation of reward motivation (2012, background): “Similarly, individuals with high reward-motivation personality traits (‘I go out of my way to get what I want’; BAS traits) may also show higher neural mesocorticolimbic activations elicited by cues for palatable foods (Beaver et al., 2006).”
Dissociation of neural networks for anticipation and consumption of monetary and social rewards (2010, neutral): “…studies have demonstrated amygdala response to reward consumption processes for sexually arousing visual stimuli (Hamann et al., 2004), food images (Beaver et al., 2006; Stoeckel et al., 2008), monetary reward (Bjork et al., 2004; Breiter et al., 2001; Dreher et al., 2007; Elliott et al., 2003;…”
Dissecting components of reward: ‘liking’, ‘wanting’, and learning (2009, background): “In humans, cocaine, sex, food, or money rewards all activate the ventral pallidum, including the posterior subregion that corresponds to the hedonic hotspot in rats [9 ,10 ,11,21].”
The first taste is always with the eyes: A meta-analysis on the neural correlates of processing visual food cues (2011, background): “Additional modulating factors are personality characteristics and behavioral traits like reward sensitivity, disinhibition, dietary restraint and a tendency toward external eating behavior (Beaver et al., 2006; Coletta et al., 2009; Martin et al., 2009; Passamonti et al., 2009).”
The orbitofrontal cortex and beyond: from affect to decision-making. (2008, background): “Investigating another difference between individuals, Beaver et al. (2006) showed that reward sensitivity in different individuals (as measured by a behavioural activation scale) is correlated with activations in the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum to pictures of appetizing vs. disgusting…”