Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Hannah Kirsten, Laura-Effi Seib-Pfeifer, Henning Gibbons
Summary: The study found that external food cues can trigger food-seeking behavior, while videos did not have a significant impact on this behavior. However, the anti-sugar video appeared to reduce the likelihood of choosing sugary snacks in the absence of food cues.
PSYCHOLOGY & HEALTH
(2022)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Joanne M. Gladding, Laura A. Bradfield, Michael D. Kendig
Summary: Our modern environment is obesogenic and promotes the consumption of high-calorie foods. The abundance of cues signaling the availability of highly palatable foods plays a powerful role in food-related decision-making. This article reviews the literature on how obesity and palatable diets affect Pavlovian cues in influencing instrumental food-seeking behaviors in rodents and humans, and discusses the challenges for future research in uncovering the underlying mechanisms of these alterations.
FRONTIERS IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Sabine Frank-Podlech, Poppy Watson, Aukje A. C. Verhoeven, Sophia Stegmaier, Hubert Preissl, Sanne de Wit
Summary: Food choices are influenced by current mindset, with supporting a health mindset potentially improving choices. Inducing health vs. palatability mindsets and presenting food-context stimuli showed mixed effects, with mindset triggers proving more robust in influencing choices towards healthier or unhealthier options. Interestingly, these effects did not impact the overall Pavlovian cues, demonstrating the potential to bias food choices towards health even in an obesogenic environment.
Article
Neurosciences
Nina T. Lichtenberg, Linnea Sepe-Forrest, Zachary T. Pennington, Alexander C. Lamparelli, Venuz Y. Greenfield, Kate M. Wassum
Summary: The study reveals the critical role of the mOFC-BLA circuit in cue-dependent reward outcome expectations that influence adaptive behavior and decision making in male rats. The bidirectional connections between mOFC and BLA are involved in using environmental cues to predict specific rewards and guide adaptive responses, while the BLA-mOFC pathway mediates responses based on the current desirability of predicted rewards. These functions differ from those of the lOFC-BLA circuit previously identified.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Review
Biology
Kate M. Wassum
Summary: Adaptive reward-related decision making requires accurate consideration of the specific outcome and current desirability of each option. The basolateral amygdala (BLA) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) collaborate to encode and use detailed reward memories, supporting prediction and inference in decision making. BLA projections to lateral OFC encode outcome-specific reward memories, while projections to medial OFC regulate the use of these memories for reward pursuit decisions.
Article
Neurosciences
Caroline Garceau, Justine Marsault, Mike J. F. Robinson, Anne-Noel Samaha
Summary: Across both sexes, there are similar cue-triggered increases in reward seeking behaviors, and thirst satiation suppresses both water-seeking behavior and the anticipation of water reward. The activity of mGlu(2/3) receptors plays a regulatory role in cue-triggered increases in reward seeking.
PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Marion Ponserre, Federica Fermani, Louise Gaitanos, Ruediger Klein
Summary: In order to successfully forage in a rewarding and threatening environment, animals rely on familiar structures of the environment to signal the availability of food. This study found that two major subpopulations of neurons in the central amygdala, CeA(Sst) and CeA(PKC delta) neurons, can assign motivational properties to environmental cues. The activity of CeA(PKC delta) neurons is required for learning contextual food cues.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Poppy Watson, Justin Mahlberg
Summary: Environmental cues associated with rewarding outcomes play a significant role in addiction relapse. Previous studies have used the Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) task to investigate how cues influence ongoing instrumental responding, and found that stronger PIT effects are related to problematic alcohol use. However, it was unclear how these findings contribute to our understanding of addiction. In this study, researchers aimed to determine the associative mechanisms underlying the observed stimulus effects in the PIT task, and concluded that the task measures general effects rather than being sensitive to outcome devaluation.
BEHAVIOURAL BRAIN RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Nura W. Lingawi, Talia Berman, Jack Bounds, Vincent Laurent
Summary: Pavlovian conditioning can enhance action performance and selection through predictive stimuli. This study found that sensory-specific satiety can modulate the role of outcome value in these control mechanisms. The results demonstrated that sensory-specific satiety can decrease the performance of an action associated with a stimulus-predicted outcome, but does not affect the influence of specific food outcomes on action selection.
FRONTIERS IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Optics
James Y. S. Tan, Zengguang Cheng, Johannes Feldmann, Xuan Li, Nathan Youngblood, Utku E. Ali, C. David Wright, Wolfram H. P. Pernice, Harish Bhaskaran
Summary: This study demonstrates a form of backpropagation-free learning using an integrated photonic platform. By utilizing phase-change materials and on-chip cascaded directional couplers, the researchers develop a machine learning framework based on single-element associations. This approach reduces computational burden and increases learning speed while offering higher bandwidth.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Kaiyang Qin, Hans Marien, Ruud Custers, Henk Aarts
Summary: A large amount of literature demonstrates that social behavior can be triggered by environmental cues, but there is a debate whether these cues directly trigger behavior or mediate goals. This study examines how the environment can trigger goal-directed behavior using a Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer paradigm. The results suggest that different cues can have different effects on instrumental responses depending on the self versus other-interest framing of the outcomes.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Nicole L. Jenni, Nicola Symonds, Stan B. Floresco
Summary: This series of experiments examined the role of the medial subregion of the orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) in Pavlovian conditioned approach, conditioned reinforcement, extinction, and cue-induced reinstatement of food-seeking behavior. The results revealed that mOFC inactivation had varied effects on these behaviors.
PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Shengjie Xu, Jonas Simoens, Tom Verguts, Senne Braem
Summary: Cognitive flexibility refers to a mental state that allows efficient switching between tasks. People can use their environment to trigger different states of cognitive flexibility.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-GENERAL
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Matthew. J. J. Belanger, Hao Chen, Angela Hentschel, Maria Garbusow, Claudia Ebrahimi, Felix. G. G. Knorr, Hilmar. G. G. Zech, Maximilian Pilhatsch, Andreas Heinz, Michael. N. N. Smolka
Summary: This study introduces two PIT paradigms designed to assess outcome-specific and general PIT within the context of addiction. The use of a joystick in the single-lever PIT task successfully evaluates avoidance behavior, while the full transfer task elicits both specific and general transfers in humans with gustatory alcohol rewards.
NEUROPSYCHOBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Scott E. Kanoski, Kerri N. Boutelle
Summary: The modern obesogenic environment is filled with abundant food cues that lead to excessive consumption and weight gain. This phenomenon is observed in both experimental rodent models and humans. By studying these models, researchers can identify the neural circuits and peptide systems that regulate food cue responsivity. The review also highlights the physiological, psychological, and neural mechanisms that connect food cue responsivity with overeating and weight gain in humans. The similarities between rodents and humans provide hope for future research and treatment of excessive food cue responsivity in humans.
REVIEWS IN ENDOCRINE & METABOLIC DISORDERS
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Alessandra C. Mansueto, Reinout W. Wiers, Julia C. M. van Weert, Barbara C. Schouten, Sacha Epskamp
Summary: Recent times have seen an increasing demand for personalized psychotherapy and tailored communication during treatment. This has led to the need to model the complex dynamics of mental disorders in individual patients. Time-series data can be collected through ecological momentary assessment and analyzed using the graphical vector autoregressive model to estimate personalized networks. These networks can be used to customize psychotherapy and provide personalized feedback to clients, making them a promising tool for clinical practice. However, it remains unclear whether these networks can be reliably estimated in clinical settings. A large-scale simulation study was conducted, and the results showed that sensitivity is low with sample sizes feasible for clinical practice. While the global network structure can be retrieved, the full network may not be recoverable. Estimating temporal networks is particularly challenging, and it is recommended to reduce the number of nodes to around six variables when using 75 and 100 observations. Full information maximum likelihood and the Kalman filter are effective in handling missing data, with planned missingness being a valid method. Methodological and clinical solutions to the challenges raised in this study are discussed.
PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Kristen P. Lindgren, Scott A. Baldwin, Kirsten P. Peterson, Jason J. Ramirez, Bethany A. Teachman, Ethan Kross, Reinout W. Wiers, Clayton Neighbors
Summary: Many college students naturally reduce hazardous drinking after graduation, and their drinking identity may function as a marker rather than a mechanism, changing along with the changes in hazardous drinking behavior.
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Substance Abuse
Yang Liu, Wery P. M. van den Wildenberg, K. Richard Ridderinkhof, Reinout W. Wiers
Summary: This study examined the effects of implementation intentions on alcohol use and found that neither motivational triggers nor additional implementation intentions were effective in reducing alcohol consumption.
JOURNAL OF SUBSTANCE USE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Irene van de Vijver, Aukje A. C. Verhoeven, Sanne de Wit
Summary: This study found that the automatization of a daily routine is related to individual differences in white-matter connectivity in corticostriatal networks. People with high control abilities are more likely to form habitual behaviors, and connectivity in the corticostriatal networks is negatively correlated with the automatization of habitual behaviors. In addition, habit tendency, conscientiousness, and daily life regularity are positively related to the automatization of routine behaviors.
JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Tim van Timmeren, Sanne de Wit
Summary: Implementation intentions, a type of strategic plan, can support behavior change by promoting habit formation. However, they may reduce behavioral flexibility and have a negative impact on test performance.
QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Laura A. Berner, Vincenzo G. Fiore, Joanna Y. Chen, Angeline Krueger, Walter H. Kaye, Thalia Viranda, Sanne de Wit
Summary: Recent models of bulimia nervosa propose that binge-purge episodes become automatic in response to cues and insensitive to negative outcomes. This study examined whether women with BN have alterations in instrumental learning and devaluation sensitivity. The BN group showed difficulty overriding previously learned stimulus-response associations, but intact sensitivity to outcome devaluation. A Bayesian learner model suggested that slower belief updating contributed to this impaired performance, which was associated with more frequent binge eating and purging.
TRANSLATIONAL PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Geriatrics & Gerontology
Lotte P. P. Brinkhof, J. M. J. Murre, S. de Wit, H. J. Krugers, K. R. Ridderinkhof
Summary: This study reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated ageism, leading to negative self-perceptions and impaired physical and mental functioning among older adults. The perceived negative ageism has increased during the pandemic and is associated with lower quality of life and mental well-being.
AGING & MENTAL HEALTH
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Poppy Watson, Justin Mahlberg
Summary: Environmental cues associated with rewarding outcomes play a significant role in addiction relapse. Previous studies have used the Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) task to investigate how cues influence ongoing instrumental responding, and found that stronger PIT effects are related to problematic alcohol use. However, it was unclear how these findings contribute to our understanding of addiction. In this study, researchers aimed to determine the associative mechanisms underlying the observed stimulus effects in the PIT task, and concluded that the task measures general effects rather than being sensitive to outcome devaluation.
BEHAVIOURAL BRAIN RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Astrid Prochnow, Xianzhen Zhou, Foroogh Ghorbani, Paul Wendiggensen, Veit Roessner, Bernhard Hommel, Christian Beste
Summary: Individuals organize events in their environment by partitioning them into discrete units. This study reveals that the neural activity in the brain plays a critical role in this process, reflecting the key elements of event segmentation.
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Rene Freichel, Lana Mrkonja, Peter J. de Jong, Janna Cousijn, Ingmar Franken, Tom A. Ruiter, Mike Le Pelley, Lucy Albertella, Poppy Watson, Ilya M. Veer, Reinout W. Wiers
Summary: Attentional bias towards rewards has been extensively studied in both healthy and clinical populations. The present two-part study examined the association between reward value-modulated attentional capture (VMAC) and internalizing symptoms as well as substance use. While consistent VMAC effects were found in reward contexts, no such effects were found in punishment contexts. Furthermore, there were no direct associations between VMAC and symptom measures.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Irene van de Vijver, Lotte P. Brinkhof, Sanne de Wit
Summary: Medication adherence is crucial for health, especially in older adults. Despite cognitive decline, older adults adhere better to daily medication routines through the formation of efficient, automatized habits, which are related to regularity and conscientiousness. The age-related increase in adherence is mediated by experienced automatization and motivation. These findings highlight the importance of habitual processes and motivation for successful routine formation in older adults.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Marine Rougier, Dominique Muller, Annique Smeding, Reinout W. Wiers, Lison Neyroud
Summary: The relationship between heaviness of use and approach bias towards tobacco is uncertain, with different addiction models providing opposite predictions. Through three studies, we found that there is a positive relationship between heaviness of use and approach bias towards tobacco among smokers, while light smokers show a stronger avoidance bias compared to non-smokers.
COLLABRA-PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Social
Thomas F. Denson, Poppy Watson, Audrey Yeong, Angel Armstrong, Joanne R. Beames, Katja Bertsch
Summary: This research investigated the relationships between aggression-related personality dimensions and attention toward violent images in young adults. The results showed little support for attentional biases in a healthy population.
PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
(2024)
Article
Psychology, Mathematical
P. Watson, T. E. Gladwin, A. A. C. Verhoeven, S. de Wit
Summary: The article presents a novel outcome-revaluation task with a symmetrical design to study habit in humans. The task provides evidence for stimulus-driven habits and the impact of self-reported behavioral automaticity on behavioral flexibility.
BEHAVIOR RESEARCH METHODS
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Mathematical
Thomas Pronk, Rebecca J. Hirst, Reinout W. Wiers, Jaap M. J. Murre
Summary: Research conducted online and administered through smartphones can access more diverse samples and reliably measure individual differences. Smartphones can be an effective tool for studying individual differences.
BEHAVIOR RESEARCH METHODS
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Hugues Piloquet, Benoit Berge, Pascal Maigret, Veronique Hospital
Summary: This study aimed to explore the effects of environmental factors on eating behavior and food intake in toddlers. The results showed that food fussiness was more common in older children, children conceived with medical assistance, children exposed to distractions during meals, rewarded by parents to finish meals, free to eat at will, and those who ate only occasionally with the whole family. Unsatisfactory dietary diversification was not significantly associated with any variable.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Victoria Norton, Julie A. Lovegrove, Marcus Tindall, Julia Rodriguez Garcia, Stella Lignou
Summary: The UK's aging population requires promotion of balanced nutrition, with a particular focus on increasing dietary fiber intake. Surveys involving older adults showed their willingness to learn about dietary fiber and the need for accessible information. Educational materials proved effective in engaging older adults and were perceived as useful. A holistic approach, involving support from various sources, can aid in improving dietary fiber consumption and overall health outcomes among older adults.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Gary J. Farkas, Paige M. Cunningham, Alicia M. Sneij, John E. Hayes, Mark S. Nash, Arthur S. Berg, David R. Gater, Barbara J. Rolls
Summary: Overeating associated with neurogenic obesity after spinal cord injury (SCI) may be related to how persons with SCI experience satiation, their eating frequency, and the context in which they eat their meals. Those with SCI rely less on physiological satiation cues for meal termination and instead rely more on hedonic cues. There are differences in meal contexts and eating frequency between SCI individuals and controls, with SCI individuals consuming fewer meals but having a higher overall eating frequency due to increased snacking. These factors likely contribute to overeating associated with neurogenic obesity after SCI.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Shana Adise, Kerri N. Boutelle, Panteha Hayati Rezvan, Eric Kan, Kyung E. Rhee, Michael I. Goran, Elizabeth R. Sowell
Summary: This study investigated the relationship between executive functions and cognition during adolescence, and the intake of fat and sugar two years later. The study found that higher impulsivity and reward-seeking behaviors were related to greater fat and sugar intake in males, while higher negative urgency and BMI were related to greater intake in both sexes. These findings suggest that individuals with certain traits may be more at risk for weight gain due to overconsumption of unhealthy foods.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Claire Margerison, Gozde Aydin, Christel Larsson, Alison Booth, Anthony Worsley, Janandani Nanayakkara
Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns resulted in changes in food accessibility and availability, leading to shifts in food habits and behaviors among people worldwide. A study conducted in Australia examined the self-reported changes in food habits and behaviors of adults during the COVID-19 restrictions in 2020. The majority of respondents reported developing positive food habits, such as trying new recipes, cooking from scratch, and reducing take-away meals. The study also found that family involvement in food preparation and eating together increased during the restrictions. However, there were negative experiences, including difficulties in purchasing certain foods and limited access to food outlets.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Betsy Cogan, Jamie A. Cooper
Summary: This study aimed to assess the effect of dietary sweetness on appetite in adults with and without obesity. The results showed that the response of ghrelin to unsweetened rinses was energy-specific for all adults, while rinses containing sucralose led to greater cephalic phase cholecystokinin release in adults with a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 kg/m(2).
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Rebecca Gregson, Jared Piazza, Heather Shaw
Summary: Recent scholarship has identified a group of individuals who self-identify as anti-vegan, and they have distinct dietarian identities and ideological profiles. Anti-vegans show higher levels of commitment to their dietary patterns compared to omnivores, and they also score higher on various ideological measures.
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Gibson Weydmann, Patricia Maidana Miguel, Nour Hakim, Laurette Dube, Patricia Pelufo Silveira, Lisiane Bizarro
Summary: This study systematically reviewed the association between obesity and overweight with reinforcement learning performance. It was found that obesity might be associated with impairments in utilizing aversive outcomes to change behavior, but further research is needed to confirm this association.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Laura Kudlek, Rebecca A. Jones, Carly Hughes, Robbie Duschinsky, Andrew Hill, Rebecca Richards, Megan Thompson, Ann Vincent, Simon J. Griffin, Amy L. Ahern
Summary: This study explored how participants of an ACT-based weight management intervention (WMI) experience emotional eating and highlighted the importance of self-awareness and alternative coping strategies in improving emotional eating. It also emphasized the need for ongoing and personalized interventions to support individuals with external locus of control and complex emotional eating experiences.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Stefanie C. Landwehr, Monika Hartmann
Summary: This study examines the influence of peers on children's snack purchasing decisions, finding that the presence of peers strongly impacts children's brand awareness and price perception, highlighting the crucial role of social influence in shaping children's decision-making processes.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Rao Yuan, Shaosheng Jin, Wenchao Wu
Summary: This study examines the interactive effects of information and consumer trust on consumer preferences for organic food. The results show that consumers are willing to pay a higher price for organic food, especially those with higher levels of trust. The introduction of information significantly increases consumers' willingness to pay, with a greater increase observed among high-trust consumers.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Oda Bjorklund, Lars Wichstrom, Clare Llewellyn, Silje Steinsbekk
Summary: This study tests the psychometric properties of the Adult Eating Behavior Questionnaire (AEBQ) in a sample of 14-year-olds and examines its construct validity using the parent-reported Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ). The results show that a 7-factor solution of the AEBQ without the Hunger scale is a better fitting model, and there are small-to-moderate correlations between the AEBQ and CEBQ scales.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Alice M. Cox, Rachael W. Taylor, Jillian J. Haszard, Kathryn L. Beck, Pamela R. von Hurst, Cathryn A. Conlon, Lisa A. Te Morenga, Lisa Daniels, Jenny Mcarthur, Rebecca Paul, Neve H. McLean, Emily A. Jones, Ioanna Katiforis, Kimberley J. Brown, Madeline Gash, Madeleine Rowan, Elizabeth A. Fleming, Rosario Jupiterwala, Bailey R. Bruckner, Anne-Louise M. Heath
Summary: Although concerns are often raised about the potential impact of baby food pouch use and Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) on infant health, there is limited research in this area. This study found that frequent pouch use was associated with increased food fussiness and more selective eating, while BLW was associated with higher energy intake and a range of eating behaviors.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Briana L. Kennedy, Andrew M. Camara, Dominic M. D. Tran
Summary: This study investigated the relationship between obesity, overconsumption, and oversensitivity to rewards, and how it affects attentional biases towards food-related stimuli. The results showed that individuals with higher BMI had lower attentional priority for food and food logos, while increased consumption of HFHS foods and dieting predicted increased attentional priority for food and food logo images.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Irene Campos-Sanchez, Rocio Munoz-Sanchez, Eva-Maria Navarrete-Munoz, Maria Sofia Molina-Inigo, Miriam Hurtado-Pomares, Paula Fernandez-Pires, Alicia Sanchez-Perez, Daniel Prieto-Botella, Iris Juarez-Leal, Paula Peral-Gomez, Cristina Espinosa-Sempere, Desiree Valera-Gran
Summary: This study aimed to investigate the association between sensory reactivity and feeding problems in young children. The results showed that taste/smell sensitivity was significantly associated with difficulties in texture transition/introduction, limited variety of foods, and both feeding problems. Additionally, children with total sensory reactivity or auditory filtering sensory reactivity had a higher prevalence of consuming a limited variety of foods. These findings highlight the importance of considering sensory reactivity as a potential predictor of feeding problems.