Stanford Psychiatry’s Eric Stice awarded grant to study the effects of processed foods on brain reward circuitry and food cue learning

We are pleased to announce that Stanford Psychiatry’s Eric Stice, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, has received a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to support research of the brain regions implicated in reward processing, attention, and memory that influence eating behavior.

Obesity is the second leading cause of premature death. Consumption of ultra-processed foods is theorized to be a key cause of obesity. Recent research implies that ultra-processed foods may more effectively activate brain regions implicated in reward processing, attention/salience, and memory that influence eating behavior. However, no brain imaging study has tested whether ultra-processed foods are more effective in activating brain regions implicated in reward, attention, and memory than minimally-processed foods, or experimentally investigated the relative role of the elevated caloric density versus the flavor enhancers of ultra-processed foods in driving greater activation of these brain regions.

This study will evaluate the ability of ultra-processed foods to activate reward, attention, and memory regions that influence eating behavior compared to minimally-processed foods. The relative role of the higher caloric content versus the flavor enhancers of ultra-processed foods to engage these regions will also be investigated, and they will test whether ultra-processed foods are more effective in promoting elevated reward region response to food cues than minimally-processed foods - which is important because elevated reward region response to food cues predicts future weight gain. It will also test whether individuals who show the greatest activation in reward, attention, and memory regions in response to ultra-processed foods and stronger food reward cue learning are at risk for greater ad lib intake of ultra-processed foods and future body fat gain.

“The findings from this project should advance knowledge regarding the mechanisms through which ultra-processed foods contribute to overeating and guide the design of more effective obesity prevention programs and treatments,” says Dr. Stice, “which is critical because current prevention programs and treatments have limited efficacy.”

Dr. Stice’s work focuses on identifying risk factors that predict onset of eating disorders, obesity, and substance abuse to advance knowledge regarding etiologic processes, including the use of functional neural imaging. He also designs, evaluates, and disseminates prevention and treatment interventions for eating disorders, obesity, and depression. Recent publications related to this work include “Enhancing Efficacy of a Brief Obesity and Eating Disorder Prevention Program: Long-Term Results from an Experimental Therapeutics Trial” published in the journal Nutrients, and “Elevated reward, emotion, and memory region response to thin models predicts eating disorder symptom persistence: A prospective functional magnetic resonance imaging study” published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science.

More Information

For more information about this study, please visit NIH’s RePORTER