The first taste is always with the eyes: A meta-analysis on the neural correlates of processing visual food cues

A collection of 6 brain maps. Each brain map is a 3D array of values representing properties of the brain at different locations.

### Collection description

<p>Food selection is primarily guided by the visual system. Multiple functional neuro-imaging studies have examined the brain responses to visual food stimuli. However, the results of these studies are heterogeneous and there still is uncertainty about the core brain regions involved in the neural processing of viewing food pictures. The aims of the present study were to determine the concurrence in the brain regions activated in response to viewing pictures of food and to assess the modulating effects of hunger state and the food&#x27;s energy content. We performed three Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) meta-analyses on data from healthy normal weight subjects in which we examined: 1) the contrast between viewing food and nonfood pictures (17 studies, 189 foci), 2) the modulation by hunger state (five studies, 48 foci) and 3) the modulation by energy content (seven studies, 86 foci). The most concurrent brain regions activated in response to viewing food pictures, both in terms of ALE values and the number of contributing experiments, were the bilateral posterior fusiform gyrus, the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the left middle insula. Hunger modulated the response to food pictures in the right amygdala and left lateral OFC, and energy content modulated the response in the hypothalamus/ventral striatum. Overall, the concurrence between studies was moderate: at best 41% of the experiments contributed to the clusters for the contrast between food and nonfood. Therefore, future research should further elucidate the separate effects of methodological and physiological factors on between-study variations.</p>

本集合包含6张脑图谱。每一张脑图谱均由三维数值数组构成，用以表示大脑在不同位置的属性。

### 集合描述

食物选择主要受视觉系统指导。众多功能性神经影像学研究已探讨大脑对视觉食物刺激的反应。然而，这些研究的结果存在异质性，且关于参与食物图片神经处理的脑核心区域仍存在不确定性。本研究的目的是确定在观看食物图片时脑激活区域的共现性，并评估饥饿状态及食物能量含量对调节作用的评估。我们对健康正常体重受试者的数据进行了三次激活可能性估计（ALE）荟萃分析，分析了以下三个方面：1）观看食物图片与非食物图片之间的对比（17项研究，189个焦点），2）饥饿状态下的调节作用（5项研究，48个焦点）和3）能量含量下的调节作用（7项研究，86个焦点）。在激活可能性估计值和参与实验数量方面，观看食物图片时最常激活的脑区域为双侧后颞叶回、左侧侧眶额叶皮层（OFC）和左侧中间岛叶。饥饿状态调节了右侧杏仁核和左侧侧眶额叶皮层的反应，而能量含量调节了下丘脑/腹侧纹状体的反应。总体而言，研究间的共现性为中等程度：在最佳情况下，41%的实验为食物与非食物对比的聚类提供了贡献。因此，未来的研究应进一步阐明方法学和生理学因素对研究间差异的独立影响。