THE ROLE OF DISTRACTION ON FLAVOR PERCEPTION, INTERACTIONS WITH SATIETY AND NEURAL RESPONSES TO FAT

Date

2023-4-25

Author

RAZZAGHI ASL, SARA

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Overeating and obesity are becoming more prevalent in the contemporary world. To treat obesity, it is essential to evaluate the environmental, behavioral, social, and emotional factors that contribute to its development. Habitual distracted eating, fat intake, and satiety are aspects associated with the development of obesity. The mechanisms behind these are still unknown. This thesis evaluates how distraction due to engagement in a concurrent working memory task impacts flavor perception. Then, the role of fat content (high fat, low fat, tasteless) on neural responses to flavor stimuli is evaluated, as well as correlations between neural responses and flavor suppression caused by distraction. Finally, the role of satiety in flavor suppression by distraction is explored. The results indicate that suppression of fat by distraction happens only when participants taste high-fat stimuli. Neural responses to high-fat and low-fat drinks vs. tasteless drinks are observed in the mid-dorsal insula/frontal operculum, precentral gyrus, thalamus, and cerebellum. We found no difference between the neural activation of low-fat versus high-fat drinks in the brain. However, we did observe positive brain-behavior correlations, such that a greater response to flavor in fusiform and amygdala responses was related to greater fat suppression by distraction in the flavor perception tasks. Satiety robustly affects working memory performance (a mixture of positive and negative effects on response times and accuracy), but not flavor perception nor distraction-mediated flavor suppression.

Subject Keywords

fMRI, distraction, satiety, cognitive load, flavor perception

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/103240

Collections

Graduate School of Informatics, Thesis