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. In the current study we intent to investigate the difference in brain patterns associated with anticipatory (visual cue) and consummatory (taste) reward. ‘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.

We hypothesize (1) that an anticipatory reward will lead to more activation in reward related areas such as the striatum, amygdala, and dopaminergic midbrain compared to a consummatory reward (preceded by an anticipatory reward). Furthermore, we expect the orbitofrontal cortex to be similarly activated for both reward types. In addition we expect that having an anticipation of a consummatory reward (in this case provoked by a label) can change the perception of this consummatory reward when it is received. We assume that expected pleasantness for the beverage coupled to the light label will be lower than for the beverage coupled to the regular label. Therefore, we hypothesize (2) that the receipt of a consummatory reward presented as a regular product will result in more activation in reward related areas such as the striatum and dopaminergic midbrain (e.g. ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra) compared to the receipt of the same product presented as light. Furthermore, based on previous research, we presume that labels bias food evaluation especially in the amygdala (region associated with emotion) thus that dissociable responses can be found in this region (Grabenhorst et al., 2013).

1. anticipatory and consummatory brain activation measurements are obtained during one fMRI scan.

2. Questionnaires and tasks are filled out in the weeks before the fMRI scan.

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.