Mapping expectancy-based appetitive placebo effects onto the brain in women

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 15; no. 1; p. 248
• Main Authors: Khalid, Iraj, Rodrigues, Belina, Dreyfus, Hippolyte, Frileux, Solène, Meissner, Karin, Fossati, Philippe, Hare, Todd Anthony, Schmidt, Liane
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 04.01.2024; Nature Publishing Group UK; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiology; Brain mapping; Brain Mapping - methods; Cognition; Cognitive ability; Cognitive science; Expectancy; Female; Food; Food Preferences - physiology; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Humans; Hunger; Life Sciences; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Neuroimaging; Neurons and Cognition; Placebo Effect; Placebos; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Subgroups
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44569-1

Suggestions about hunger can generate placebo effects on hunger experiences. But, the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms are unknown. Here, we show in 255 women that hunger expectancies, induced by suggestion-based placebo interventions, determine hunger sensations and economic food choices. Functional magnetic resonance imaging in a subgroup (n = 57/255) provides evidence that the strength of expecting the placebo to decrease hunger moderates medial prefrontal cortex activation at the time of food choice and attenuates ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) responses to food value. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation linked to interference resolution formally mediates the suggestion-based placebo effects on hunger. A drift-diffusion model characterizes this effect by showing that the hunger suggestions bias participants' food choices and how much they weigh tastiness against the healthiness of food, which further moderates vmPFC-dlPFC psychophysiological interactions when participants expect decreased hunger. Thus, suggestion-induced beliefs about hunger shape hunger addressing economic choices through cognitive regulation of value computation within the prefrontal cortex.