Craving's role in biasing subjective value computation in food addiction

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Both healthy individuals and those with addictive disorders experience cravings, a strong urge for a particular substance. Yet despite this and the recognized impact craving has on some individuals, such as those with food addiction, leading to overconsumption of highly palatable, high-calorie/high-fat foods, little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying craving and its impact on decision making. Past fMRI studies have identified canonical value and emotion/interoceptive processing regions of the brain that are sensitive to craving. However, these studies rely on cue-reactivity paradigms that do not examine subjective value computations, an essential component of behavioral intent understood to dictate - and potentially bias - decision making under craving. Work in my lab has shown craving scales subjective value (i.e., how much an individual feels an item is worth) in a multiplicative manner along a similarity dimension. Meaning people disproportionately value a craved item and those similar to it more than dissimilar items during craving. However, the precise neural mechanisms supporting this biased increase in subjective value in food addiction remain unknown. To address this, I will induce craving via a multisensory food activity and have subjects complete willingness-to-pay probes during fMRI so I may track how individuals’ subjective value changes pre- and post-craving. Furthermore, I will use the Yale Food Addiction Scale to select for normative (control) and addictive food consumption (food addiction) subjects to compare how craving may differentially exert its effects in food addiction. In Aim 1, to test how craving differentially exerts its effect in food addiction, I will examine how subjective value changes for craved and non- craved foods pre- and post-craving induction with the hypothesis that the food addiction group will exhibit more disproportionate increases in subjective value for both the craved snack and non-craved snacks compared to controls who will display a more targeted effect. Furthermore, to determine what neural bases may be primed in food addiction to produce these disproportionate increases in subjective value, in Aim 2 I will assess whether patterns of neural activity (i.e., neural representations) for the value of the craved and non-craved snacks are less distinct in food addiction compared to controls, serving to drive more generalized overconsumption. The training and research outlined in this F31 application will enhance my predoctoral training by: (1) solidifying my understanding of motivational and decision neuroscience (neuroeconomics) methods and theory and (2) increasing my competency in craving and behavioral addictions. The activities planned are aimed at advancing my theoretical understanding of how motivational states interact with decision making, neuroimaging skills, and clinical knowledge, all of which will be essential to achieving Aims 1 and 2, results from which would provide novel insights into the precise neural mechanisms that underlie craving in food addiction.