Brain patterns of anticipatory and consummatory reward.

Food reward consist of an anticipatory component often related to the
presentation of a cue and a consummatory component related to reward receipt.
Little research has been conducted about the differences in brain patterns
associated with anticipatory and consummatory reward though in one study, they
were found to be dissociable. However, this study had numerous drawbacks.
First, only 8 participants were included. Second, instead of building on an
existing association between an *off the shelf* food label and a stimulus,
participants were conditioned to arbitrary visual stimuli. And last, it was not
possible to disentangle reward responses from salience responses and no link
between reward in the brain and behavioral reward could be made due to absence
of a behavioral task. In the current study we intent to investigate the
difference in brain patterns associated with anticipatory (visual cue) and
consummatory (taste) reward taking into account above mentioned drawbacks. *Off
the shelf* labels of a light and regular beverage will be used as anticipatory
reward cues in order to give more inside on the acceptance of light
products/labels.

The primary objectives of this study are (1) to assess how anticipatory reward
related brain patterns differ from consummatory reward related brain patterns
and (2) to assess how presentation of an anticipatory reward cue alters brain
responses associated with a consummatory reward.

The 1st secondary objective of this study is to assess whether anticipatory and
consummatory reward responses (brain) can be linked to behavioral reward
responses i.e. motivation to obtain food and product choice.

The 2nd secondary objective of this study is to establish in how far subject
characteristics like reward sensitivity, delayed discounting, impulsivity,
health attitude, stress, executive functioning and food neophobia correlate
with anticipatory and consummatory reward related brain responses.

On the study day participants engage in an fMRI task in which they are
alternately exposed to one of three visual cues (a light label, a regular label
or a label signaling a neutral stimulus), accordingly work for the product
signaled by the cue by pushing or pulling a joystick and finally taste the
corresponding product (sweet regular beverage or neutral stimulus), while their
brain responses are measured using functional MRI. There are three task
conditions: a) presentation of a light label - push/pull - consumption of a
regular beverage (incongruent) b) presentation of a regular label - push/pull -
consumption of a regular beverage (congruent) c) presentation of a *neutral*
label - push/pull - consumption of a neutral stimulus. At the end of the
session (outside the scanner) participants are asked to make a choice between a
light and a regular juice box to take home.

Participants are exposured to three different labels, a light label a regular
label and a 'neutral' label, and two tastants, a regular beverage and a neutral
control stimulus.
There are three task conditions:
a) presentation of a light label - consumption of a regular beverage
b) presentation of a regular label - consumption of a regular beverage
c) presentation of a *neutral* label - consumption of a neutral control stimulus
These three task conditions are randomized and counterbalanced.

The study will consist of an information meeting (approx. 45 min), a training
session (approx. 60 min) and a scan session (approx. 110-135 min). Participants
will visit the university once for an information meeting (Biotechnion,
Wageningen). After this, participants will visit the dummy scanner to complete
the training session (Restaurant of the Future, Wageningen). For the scan
session, participants will visit the MRI facility in Hospital Gelderse Vallei
(Ede). During the scan session subjects will be exposed to visual cues, push or
pull a joystick, taste the stimuli, rate among other things the pleasantness
(liking), desirability (wanting) and sweetness for the stimuli and make a
product choice. The study is non-therapeutic to the participants. The risk
associated with participation is negligible.