Build­ing on find­ings from ani­mal stud­ies we are inter­est­ed in whether a high­er intake of sat­u­rat­ed fats and refined sug­ar is asso­ci­at­ed with dif­fer­ences in dopamine-relat­ed cog­ni­tion. We recruit­ed par­tic­i­pants based on their self-report­ed fat and sug­ar intake, grouped them into low and high con­sumers and com­pared their per­for­mance on five dif­fer­ent cog­ni­tive tasks – two of which were per­formed in the MRI scan­ner. Addi­tion­al­ly, two genet­ic vari­ants relat­ed to dopamine were ana­lyzed and linked to dietary intake and cognition.

key­words: fat, sug­ar, cog­ni­tion, genetics

Link to the pre­reg­is­tra­tion: https://osf.io/vs8cm/

Pre­vi­ous stud­ies sug­gest that there are uncon­scious sig­nals to the reward sys­tem that influ­ence food choice and that are cre­at­ed and main­tained as a con­se­quence of our mod­ern, obe­si­ty-pro­mot­ing envi­ron­ment. To con­firm and extend these results in a Finnish sam­ple, we aim to inves­ti­gate macronu­tri­ent com­bi­na­tions such as car­bo­hy­drates and fat food items along with food pro­cess­ing and exam­ine their effects on food moti­va­tion. Using a series of food ques­tion­naires, a behav­ioral task as a proxy for food reward, and func­tion­al mag­net­ic res­o­nance (fMRI), we hope to move clos­er to under­stand­ing the effects of mod­ern diets on human eat­ing behav­ior in indi­vid­u­als with a wide range of BMI.

Key­words: macronu­tri­ents, fat, car­bo­hy­drate, reward

We are cur­rent­ly look­ing for participants!

Syn­the­sized from dopamine, neu­rome­lanin accu­mu­lates with age. Con­cen­tra­tions of neu­rome­lanin have been shown to cor­re­late to dopamine release. Find­ings in ani­mal stud­ies sug­gest that fol­low­ing a diet high in fat and sug­ar induces dopamin­er­gic changes. How­ev­er, how these alter­ations relate to long-time changes with­in the brain’s dopamin­er­gic path­ways is not known, and there­fore we inves­ti­gate whether a high­er intake of sat­u­rat­ed fats and refined sug­ar is asso­ci­at­ed with dif­fer­ences in neu­rome­lanin con­cen­tra­tion in humans. We do this using quan­ti­ta­tive sus­cep­ti­bil­i­ty map­ping (QSM), an MRI tech­nique that is sen­si­tive to para­mag­net­ic substances.

This col­lab­o­ra­tion project with the Depart­ment of Eco­nom­ics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich employs func­tion­al mag­net­ic res­o­nance imag­ing (fMRI)-based neu­ro­feed­back from human SN/VTA mid­brain nuclei. Based on their assumed role in moti­va­tion, this project inves­ti­gates the link between (vol­un­tary) BOLD sig­nal fluc­tu­a­tions with­in these areas and changes in cost-ben­e­fit decision-making. 

Key­words: dopamine, mid­brain, neu­ro­feed­back, deci­sion-mak­ing, men­tal effort

In 2010, a break­through study by Lal­ly and col­leagues titled How are habits formed: Mod­el­ing habit for­ma­tion in the real world found that on aver­age it takes peo­ple 66 days to form a healthy habit. This study has been cit­ed more than 2000 times, inspired a line of research into real-world habit for­ma­tion, and influ­enced pub­lic occu­pa­tion­al health, busi­ness eco­nom­ics, and sci­ence tech­nol­o­gy around the globe. In an inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion with the uni­ver­si­ties of Ams­ter­dam, NL, Cam­bridge, UK, and Kon­stanz, GER and led by Dr Sanne de Wit we aim to repli­cate the study’s find­ing and extend it to a broad­er population.

key­words: habit for­ma­tion, replication

While many peo­ple know that breast can­cer is the most com­mon can­cer among women, few­er real­ize that sur­vivors often expe­ri­ence last­ing prob­lems with mem­o­ry, focus, and think­ing clear­ly. These cog­ni­tive dif­fi­cul­ties can vary from per­son to per­son and may be influ­enced by indi­vid­ual fac­tors such as age, anti-can­cer treat­ments, or pri­or health.
In this study, we are using online tools to track brain func­tion and over­all qual­i­ty of life over the course of a year. We are com­par­ing breast can­cer sur­vivors with women who have no his­to­ry of can­cer to bet­ter under­stand these changes.
In a sec­ond part of the study, some par­tic­i­pants will try a gen­tle brain stim­u­la­tion treat­ment that can be done at home. This non-inva­sive, flex­i­ble approach may help improve men­tal clar­i­ty with­out the need for hos­pi­tal vis­its. By using MRI scans, we can see how the brain responds to the treat­ment and explore who ben­e­fits the most.
Our goal is to learn more about how the brain recov­ers after can­cer and to devel­op effec­tive, per­son­al­ized ways to sup­port sur­vivors in every­day life.

Key­words: breast can­cer, can­cer-relat­ed cog­ni­tive dif­fi­cul­ties, brain

We are cur­rent­ly look­ing for participants!