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Nucleus accumbens response to food cues predicts subsequent snack consumption in women and increased body mass index in those with reduced self-control
Abstract
Individuals have difficulty controlling their food consumption, which is due in part to the ubiquity of tempting food cues in the environment. Individual differences in the propensity to attribute incentive (motivational) salience to and act on these cues may explain why some individuals eat more than others. Using fMRI in healthy women, we found that food cue related activity in the nucleus accumbens, a key brain region for food motivation and reward, was related to subsequent snack food consumption. However, both nucleus accumbens activation and snack food consumption were unrelated to self-reported hunger, or explicit wanting and liking for the snack. In contrast, food cue reactivity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex was associated with subjective hunger/appetite, but not with consumption. Whilst the food cue reactivity in the nucleus accumbens that predicted snack consumption was not directly related to body mass index (BMI), it was associated with increased BMI in individuals reporting low self-control. Our findings reveal a neural substrate underpinning automatic environmental influences on consumption in humans and demonstrate how self-control interacts with this response to predict BMI. Our data provide support for theoretical models that advocate a 'dual hit' of increased incentive salience attribution to food cues and poor self-control in determining vulnerability to overeating and overweight.
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“increases in the motivated drive to eat in the absence of food choices has been primarily associated with activity in the ventral striatum (independent of the effects of sleep loss)9.”
From The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain (2013) · cites this paper as [9]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Lawrence, N. S., Hinton, E. C., Parkinson, J. A., & Lawrence, A. D.
- Affiliations
- University of Exeter (GB)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- Bangor University (GB)
- Cardiff University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Lawrence, Natalia S.
- Venue
- NeuroImage
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012-10
- Volume
- 63
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 415-422
- ISSN
- 1053-8119 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1968015570
- Cited by
- 242
- References
- 116
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 35 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 16
- FWCI
- 19.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- NeuroImage (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (submittedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wales Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Regulation of Appetite and Obesity
- Keywords
- nucleus accumbens, food cues, snacking, self-control, body mass index, incentive salience, food cue reactivity, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, hunger, appetite, food motivation, overeating, overweight, women
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Appetite, Choice Behavior, Cues, Feeding Behavior, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Motivation, Nucleus Accumbens, Body Mass Index, Intention, Young Adult, Snacks
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