Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, RCB 5246, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada.
Nutrients. 2014 Jan 10;6(1):319-41. doi: 10.3390/nu6010319.
There has been a great deal of interest in understanding how the human brain processes appetitive food cues, and knowing how such cues elicit craving responses is particularly relevant when current eating behavior trends within Westernized societies are considered. One substance that holds a special place with regard to food preference is chocolate, and studies that used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potentials (ERPs) have identified neural regions and electrical signatures that are elicited by chocolate cue presentations. This review will examine fMRI and ERP findings from studies that used high-caloric food and chocolate cues as stimuli, with a focus on responses observed in samples of healthy participants, as opposed to those with eating-related pathology. The utility of using high-caloric and chocolate stimuli as a means of understanding the human reward system will also be highlighted, as these findings may be particularly important for understanding processes related to pathological overeating and addiction to illicit substances. Finally, research from our own lab that focused on chocolate stimulus processing in chocolate cravers and non-cravers will be discussed, as the approach used may help bridge fMRI and ERP findings so that a more complete understanding of appetitive stimulus processing in the temporal and spatial domains may be established.
人们一直很感兴趣的是了解人类大脑如何处理有吸引力的食物线索，而当考虑到当前西方社会的饮食行为趋势时，了解这些线索如何引起渴望反应尤其重要。有一种物质在食物偏好方面具有特殊地位，那就是巧克力，使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和事件相关电位（ERPs）的研究已经确定了由巧克力线索呈现引起的神经区域和电特征。这篇综述将检查使用高热量食物和巧克力线索作为刺激物的研究中的 fMRI 和 ERP 发现，重点关注在健康参与者样本中观察到的反应，而不是那些与饮食相关的病理反应。还将强调使用高热量和巧克力刺激物作为理解人类奖励系统的一种手段的效用，因为这些发现对于理解与病理性暴饮暴食和非法物质成瘾相关的过程可能尤为重要。最后，将讨论我们自己实验室专注于巧克力爱好者和非巧克力爱好者的巧克力刺激处理的研究，因为所使用的方法可能有助于弥合 fMRI 和 ERP 发现之间的差距，从而可以在时间和空间域中更全面地理解有吸引力的刺激处理。
