Food Deprivation: A neuroscientific perspective

Abstract

Deprivation of food has powerful effects on almost every aspect of food-related anticipatory and consummatory behaviors. Prolonged periods of starving are one of the most tragic experiences of humanity and in these periods, thoughts about food crowd mental life. However, even mild periods of deprivation are effective in eliciting appetitive behaviors, including the increase of food consumption and reinforcer value of food. Neuroimaging methods provide a new avenue to study deprivation effects on food stimulus processing at the level of neural structures and subprocesses. Similar to the study of fear, this perspective is informed by animal research about the organization of the feeding system. Research is reviewed regarding the hypothesis that food deprivation increases the incentive value of food stimuli and regulates attention processes. Core elements of the experimental protocols are summarized and hemodynamic, electrophysiological, and reflexive measures of brain activity briefly introduced. Overall, it is concluded that neuroscientific studies provide preliminary support regarding both hypotheses. However, the number of studies addressing deprivation effects with neuroimaging methods is sparse. Accordingly, a more systematic research effort is needed to reveal reliable and consistent findings associated with food deprivation and the regulation of ingestive behaviors by internal states. This line of research is promising for providing a framework yielding greater insight into the impact of voluntary restriction of food intake such as dieting, restrained eating, and eating-related disorders.