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The Journal of Neuroscience, May 10, 2006, 26(19):5160-5166; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0350-06.2006

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Individual Differences in Reward Drive Predict Neural Responses to Images of Food

John D. Beaver,¹ Andrew D. Lawrence,¹ Jenneke van Ditzhuijzen,¹ Matt H. Davis,¹ Andrew Woods,² and Andrew J. Calder¹

¹Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 2EF, United Kingdom, and ²School of Psychology, University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2AS, United Kingdom

Correspondence should be addressed to either Dr. John Beaver or Dr. Andrew Calder, Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge CB2 2EF, UK. Email: john.beaver{at}mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk andy.calder{at}mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk

A network of interconnected brain regions, including orbitofrontal, ventral striatal, amygdala, and midbrain areas, has been widely implicated in a number of aspects of food reward. However, in humans, sensitivity to reward can vary significantly from one person to the next. Individuals high in this trait experience more frequent and intense food cravings and are more likely to be overweight or develop eating disorders associated with excessive food intake. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we report that individual variation in trait reward sensitivity (as measured by the Behavioral Activation Scale) is highly correlated with activation to images of appetizing foods (e.g., chocolate cake, pizza) in a fronto–striatal–amygdala–midbrain network. Our findings demonstrate that there is considerable personality-linked variability in the neural response to food cues in healthy participants and provide important insight into the neurobiological factors underlying vulnerability to certain eating problems (e.g., hyperphagic obesity).

Key words: reward; personality; appetite; striatum; amygdala; orbitofrontal cortex

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Received Jan. 25, 2006; revised March 21, 2006; accepted March 22, 2006.

Correspondence should be addressed to either Dr. John Beaver or Dr. Andrew Calder, Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge CB2 2EF, UK. Email: john.beaver{at}mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk andy.calder{at}mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk

Related articles in J. Neurosci.:

Personality Predicts Responsivity of the Brain Reward System

Jan B. Engelmann
J. Neurosci. 2006 26: 7775-7776. [Full Text]  

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				J. D. Beaver, A. D. Lawrence, L. Passamonti, and A. J. Calder Appetitive Motivation Predicts the Neural Response to Facial Signals of Aggression J. Neurosci., March 12, 2008; 28(11): 2719 - 2725. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. S. Smith and K. C. Berridge Opioid Limbic Circuit for Reward: Interaction between Hedonic Hotspots of Nucleus Accumbens and Ventral Pallidum J. Neurosci., February 14, 2007; 27(7): 1594 - 1605. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. B. Engelmann Personality Predicts Responsivity of the Brain Reward System J. Neurosci., July 26, 2006; 26(30): 7775 - 7776. [Full Text] [PDF]

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