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Virtue: developing a realistic fMRI-compatible VIRTUal food choice Environment to test the effectiveness and neural underpinnings of healthy eating interventions

The continuing rise in overweight signals an urgent need for effective interventions for promoting healthy eating. Food choices are made in the brain and result from a complex interaction between homeostatic, hedonic and cognitive control mechanisms. However, it is largely unknown through which neural and attentional mechanisms health interventions can or should exert their influence to be effective in promoting healthy food choices. Therefore, the objective of this project is to determine how healthy eating interventions impact on neural and attentional mechanisms underlying food choice. The major obstacle is that no realistic neuroimaging paradigm exists to test such effects of health interventions. Therefore, in the first stage, a dedicated virtual supermarket suitable for use in neuroimaging research (NeuroShop) will be developed and validated. This is necessary to ensure validity of neuroimaging findings for real life food choices.  An intervention approach that has proven highly effective is health goal priming. Health primes increase the mental accessibility of health goals and thereby motivate healthy choices. In the second stage the NeuroShop will be used to elucidate the neurocognitive drivers of this successful goal priming intervention as a showcase. The NeuroShop will open up a wealth of research and development opportunities: it can be used for brain-based fine-tuning of existing health interventions to specific target groups and development of new interventions. Ultimately, this promotes healthy eating, which is essential for curbing the obesity epidemic and fostering health and well-being.

Zwangerschap, infecties en psychische stoornissen bij het nageslacht: Hoe beïnvloedt het voedingspatroon van de moeder haar kinderen?

Infections during pregnancy may increase the risk of neuropsychiatric disorders in humans. In rodents, prenatal infections induce behavioural and cognitive deficits in the offspring. The mechanisms that contribute to these long-term neurocognitive defects are largely unknown, and potential protective interventions are not much studied. The aim of this project is to determine whether prenatal functional food additives can protect against cognitive impairment induced by maternal viral infection, and to study the role of the immune system therein.