TY - JOUR
T1 - Neural correlates of top-down guidance of attention to food: an fMRI study
AU - Spetter, Maartje
AU - Higgs, Suzanne
AU - Dolmans, Dirk
AU - Thomas, Jason
AU - Reniers, Renate
AU - Rotshtein, Pia
AU - Rutters, Femke
PY - 2020/7/18
Y1 - 2020/7/18
N2 - We investigated the neural correlates of working memory guided attentional selection of food versus non-food stimuli in young women. Participants were thirty-two women, aged 20.6y (± 0.5) who were presented with a cue (food or non-food item) to hold in working memory. Subsequently, they had to search for a target in a 2-item display where target and distractor stimuli were each flanked by a picture of a food or a non-food item. The behavioural data showed that attention is particularly efficiently drawn to food stimuli when thinking about food. Using fMRI, we found that holding a non-food versus food stimulus in working memory was associated with increased activity in occipital gyrus, fusiform, inferior and superior frontal gyrus. In the posterior cingulum, retrosplenial cortex, a food item that re-appeared in the search array when it was held in memory led to a reduced response, compared to when it did not re-appear. The reverse effect was found for non-food stimuli. The extent of the reappearance effect correlated with the attentional capture of food as measured behaviourally. In conclusion, these results suggest that holding food in mind may bias attention because thinking of food facilitated neuronal responses to sensory input related to food stimuli and because holding food related information in mind is less taxing on memory.
AB - We investigated the neural correlates of working memory guided attentional selection of food versus non-food stimuli in young women. Participants were thirty-two women, aged 20.6y (± 0.5) who were presented with a cue (food or non-food item) to hold in working memory. Subsequently, they had to search for a target in a 2-item display where target and distractor stimuli were each flanked by a picture of a food or a non-food item. The behavioural data showed that attention is particularly efficiently drawn to food stimuli when thinking about food. Using fMRI, we found that holding a non-food versus food stimulus in working memory was associated with increased activity in occipital gyrus, fusiform, inferior and superior frontal gyrus. In the posterior cingulum, retrosplenial cortex, a food item that re-appeared in the search array when it was held in memory led to a reduced response, compared to when it did not re-appear. The reverse effect was found for non-food stimuli. The extent of the reappearance effect correlated with the attentional capture of food as measured behaviourally. In conclusion, these results suggest that holding food in mind may bias attention because thinking of food facilitated neuronal responses to sensory input related to food stimuli and because holding food related information in mind is less taxing on memory.
KW - attention
KW - fMRI
KW - food
KW - memory
KW - neural correlates
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088745010&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
SN - 0031-9384
VL - 225
JO - Physiology and Behavior
JF - Physiology and Behavior
M1 - 113085
ER -