Pengfei Han1,2,3, Clemens Roitzsch1, Annette Horstmann4,5,6,7, Maria Pössel5,6, Thomas Hummel1. 1. Interdisciplinary Center on Smell and Taste, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, Germany. 2. The Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Ministry of Education), Southwest University, Chongqing, China. 3. Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China. 4. Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. 5. IFB Adiposity Diseases, Leipzig University Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany. 6. Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany. 7. Leipzig University Medical Center, CRC 1052A5 'Obesity Mechanisms', Leipzig, Germany.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Food odors serve as powerful stimuli signaling the food quality and energy density and direct food-specific appetite and consumption. This study explored obesity-related brain activation in response to odors related to high- or low-energy-dense foods. METHODS: Seventeen participants with obesity (BMI > 30 kg/m2 ; 4 males and 13 females) and twenty-one with normal weight (BMI < 25 kg/m2 ; 9 males and 12 females) underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan in which they received chocolate (high-energy-dense food) and cucumber (low-energy-dense food) odor stimuli. Participants' olfactory and gustatory functions were assessed by the "Sniffin' Sticks" and "Taste Strips" tests, respectively. RESULTS: Compared with normal-weight controls, participants with obesity had lower odor sensitivity (phenylethyl alcohol) and decreased odor discrimination ability. However, participants with obesity demonstrated greater brain activation in response to chocolate compared with cucumber odors in the bilateral inferior frontal operculum and cerebellar vermis, right ventral anterior insula extending to putamen, right middle temporal gyrus, and right supramarginal areas. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides preliminary evidence that obesity is associated with heightened brain activation of the reward and flavor processing areas in response to chocolate versus cucumber odors, possibly because of the higher energy density and reinforcing value of chocolate compared with cucumber.
OBJECTIVE: Food odors serve as powerful stimuli signaling the food quality and energy density and direct food-specific appetite and consumption. This study explored obesity-related brain activation in response to odors related to high- or low-energy-dense foods. METHODS: Seventeen participants with obesity (BMI > 30 kg/m2 ; 4 males and 13 females) and twenty-one with normal weight (BMI < 25 kg/m2 ; 9 males and 12 females) underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan in which they received chocolate (high-energy-dense food) and cucumber (low-energy-dense food) odor stimuli. Participants' olfactory and gustatory functions were assessed by the "Sniffin' Sticks" and "Taste Strips" tests, respectively. RESULTS: Compared with normal-weight controls, participants with obesity had lower odor sensitivity (phenylethyl alcohol) and decreased odor discrimination ability. However, participants with obesity demonstrated greater brain activation in response to chocolate compared with cucumber odors in the bilateral inferior frontal operculum and cerebellar vermis, right ventral anterior insula extending to putamen, right middle temporal gyrus, and right supramarginal areas. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides preliminary evidence that obesity is associated with heightened brain activation of the reward and flavor processing areas in response to chocolate versus cucumber odors, possibly because of the higher energy density and reinforcing value of chocolate compared with cucumber.