Abstract
The easy availability of food has caused a shift from eating for survival to hedonic eating. Women, compared to men, have shown to respond differently to food cues in the environment on a behavioral and a neural level, in particular to energy rich (compared to low energy) foods. It has been demonstrated that the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) is the only region exhibiting greater activation for high vs. low calorie food choices. In order to test for a possible causal role of STS in food choice, we applied high frequency transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) on STS assuming a different response pattern between males and females. Our participants (18 females, 17 males) performed a forced choice task between food pairs matched for individual liking but differed in calorie, during the left STS, right STS stimulation and sham condition. Male participants showed a general preference for low calorie (LC) foods compared to females. In addition, we observed in males, but not in females, an increase of high calorie (HC) food choice during right STS tRNS compared to sham condition and left STS tRNS. Finally, we found an increase of missed choices during right STS stimulation compared to sham condition and left STS stimulation. In conclusion, thanks to tRNS evidence, we both confirm the involvement and suggest a causal role of right posterior STS in feeding behavior. Moreover, we suggest that gender differences exist in STS mechanisms underlying food choice.
Highlights
The easy availability of food in our western society has caused a shift from eating for survival to an hedonic eating aimed to obtain pleasant feelings from food intake (Peters et al, 2002; Saper et al, 2002; Mela, 2006)
Considering the percentage of HC food choice as dependent variable, ANOVA with transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) condition and participants gender (F, M) as factors showed a significant effect of gender (F(1,32) = 7.67, p = 0.009, ηp2 = 0.193) and a significant interaction tRNS × Gender (F(2,64) = 4.23, p = 0.018, ηp2 = 0.117)
Considering the rank transformed percentage of missed choice as dependent variable, ANOVA with tRNS condition and participants gender (F, M) as factors showed a significant effect of tRNS (F(2,64) = 11.44, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.263) and no other significant effect
Summary
The easy availability of food in our western society has caused a shift from eating for survival (energy intake) to an hedonic eating aimed to obtain pleasant feelings (reward) from food intake (Peters et al, 2002; Saper et al, 2002; Mela, 2006). In the last decades many studies have focused on feeding behavior and food decision making (e.g., Drewnowski, 1997; Wansink, 2004; Friese et al, 2008; Vabø and Hansen, 2014) It seems that, in addition to the psycho-physiological condition (e.g., hunger level: de Castro, 1988; Finlayson et al, 2007), the main factors that modulate food intake are the sex of the eaters (e.g., Wardle et al, 2004; Arganini et al, 2012) and the meal-related pleasure tRNS and Food Choice experienced (e.g., Eertmans et al, 2001; Drewnowski and Almiron-Roig, 2009). The simple exposure to food pictures elicits anticipatory responses similar to food intake (Berridge, 1999; Dagher, 2012; Huerta et al, 2014) and HC compared to LC food viewing results in increased activation of the meso-limbic-cortical reward circuit (Frank et al, 2010; van der Laan et al, 2011)
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