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Investigating the Neural Representations of Taste and Health

Londeree, Allison M
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9641-2058
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1556649590296739

Abstract Details

2019, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Psychology.
Functional neuroimaging studies have shown that food-cue related activity in the brain’s reward system is associated with poor dietary self-control, weight-gain and greater overall body mass. Understanding how neural responses to food cues are related to the attributes of food items (e.g., taste, health, liking) may offer insight into what drives neural responses in the reward system and ultimately what contributes to dietary self-control failure. Here, we investigated the neural representation of food items varying in taste and health using a combination of Representational Similarity Analysis (RSA) and linear mixed-effects modeling. In order to minimize potential confounds associated with the use of “food scenes” in prior research (e.g., variation in food size, lighting and background) we created a new stimulus set of 140 unique food images belonging to 28 food categories (e.g., cake, grapes, fries). Twenty participants underwent an fMRI scan while viewing these food images, and subsequently rated each food category on a variety of motivational attributes. From the average neural response to each of the 28 food categories, a neural similarity matrix was created and compared to model similarity structures derived from participant’s subjective ratings of food attributes. We then conducted a regression-based RSA analysis using linear mixed-effects modeling to account for within-subject random factors. This analysis demonstrated that neural activity patterns in the orbital frontal cortex (OFC) were independently associated with subjective health and taste ratings. In addition, highly tasty foods were represented more distinctly from one another, whereas foods similarly rated on healthiness were similarly represented. Taken together, this suggests a baseline against which future work might compare whether the neural representations of individuals with poor dietary self-control have an abnormal representation of food attributes.
Dylan Wagner, Dr. (Advisor)
Kentaro Fujita, Dr. (Committee Member)
Baldwin Way, Dr. (Committee Member)
68 p.
Neurosciences; Psychology
Neuroscience, Reward, Representational Similarity Analysis

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Londeree, A. M. (2019). Investigating the Neural Representations of Taste and Health [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1556649590296739

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Londeree, Allison. Investigating the Neural Representations of Taste and Health. 2019. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1556649590296739.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Londeree, Allison. "Investigating the Neural Representations of Taste and Health." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1556649590296739

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1556649590296739
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.