This archive contains the materials and results from experiments completed under the project entitled "Interactions between metabolic, cognitive and reward processes in appetite". Study 1 examined the effect of intra-nasal insulin on food intake, appetite and food reward and cognition in women with obesity and lean women. Study 2 examined the effect of the serotonin agonist mCPP on food intake, appetite and food reward and cognition in lean men and women. Study 3 examined the effect of Lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX) in women with binge-eating symptoms. The findings have been published in: Schneider, E., Spetter, M. S., Martin, E., Sapey, E., Yip, K. P., Manolopoulos, K. N., ... & Higgs, S. (2022). The effect of intranasal insulin on appetite and mood in women with and without obesity: an experimental medicine study. International Journal of Obesity, 1-9. Schneider, E., Martin, E., Rotshtein, P., Qureshi, K. L., Chamberlain, S. R., Spetter, M. S., ... & Higgs, S. (2022). The effects of lisdexamfetamine dimesylate on eating behaviour and homeostatic, reward and cognitive processes in women with binge-eating symptoms: an experimental medicine study. Translational psychiatry, 12(1), 1-8. The results of the mCPP study are currently being written up for publication.Recent research has helped us understand the processes that lead us to prefer certain foods over others and the factors that influence how much we eat. We know that through experience we learn that some foods are very rewarding to eat and this learning influences our food choices. We also know that signals relating to the ingestion of food arising from the body (metabolic signals) modulate processes in the brain that are important for determining how much a food is desired. Food is less attractive when we have just eaten for this reason. Our food choices are also influenced by cognitive processes such as attention and memory, for example, when thinking about food we are likely to pay attention to food in the environment and may be more likely to eat. Although we know that metabolic signals and cognitive processes directly influence food reward we know very little about how these factors interact to affect eating. New evidence from our research team suggests that metabolic signals may affect food reward indirectly via modulation of higher cognitive functions. The aim of this research programme is to investigate this idea by examining the effects of specific metabolic signals on cognitive processes and food reward. This is a new approach to the study of food choice and the results will have implications for both theory and practice. Potential practical benefits will include the possibility of developing more effective interventions to help people control their food intake.

Experimental studies with human volunteers. For further information please consult the documentation of each study.