Neural bases of food perception: Coordinate-based meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies in multiple modalities

Abstract

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to compare the results of the three food-cue paradigms most commonly used for functional neuroimaging studies to determine: i) commonalities and differences in the neural response patterns by paradigm; and, ii) the relative robustness and reliability of responses to each paradigm.Design and Methodsfunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies using standardized stereotactic coordinates to report brain responses to food cues were identified using on-line databases. Studies were grouped by food-cue modality as: i) tastes (8 studies); ii) odors (8 studies); and, iii) images (11 studies). Activation likelihood estimation (ALE) was used to identify statistically reliable regional responses within each stimulation paradigm.ResultsBrain response distributions were distinctly different for the three stimulation modalities, corresponding to known differences in location of the respective primary and associative cortices. Visual stimulation induced the most robust and extensive responses. The left anterior insula was the only brain region reliably responding to all three stimulus categories.ConclusionsThese findings suggest visual food-cue paradigm as promising candidate for imaging studies addressing the neural substrate of therapeutic interventions.