In subclinical depression in undergraduates, odor-evoked autobiographical memories are relatively less vivid than those evoked with words or photographs.
YAR BERÇEM | Üngüder Yağmur | VELDHUİZEN MARİA GERALDİNE
The specificity of autobiographical memories is reduced in depression. Effects of depression on memory specificity have typically been examined using word cues, but odor cues may be more sensitive. Here, we measured depressive symptom severity in undergraduate students with and without subclinical depression (n = 99, 58 women, 40 men, and one nonbinary) and used word, photograph, or odor cues to examine memory retrieval. Overall, we observed more memories recalled in subclinical depression relative to no depression. We observed no effect of cue type or depression group on autobiographical memories specificity. However, subclinical depression was associated with lower memory pleasantness. Memory vividness was also associated with subclinical depression, mostly in memories evoked by odors. T...
Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation in a hungry state decreases heart rate variability
Büyükgüdük, ilkim | Yanık, Hüseyin | Yılmaz, Dilan Dneiz | Yar, Berçem | Değirmenci, Evren | Dal, Uğur | Geraldine Veldhuizen, Maria
Vagus nerve signals from the gut to brain carry information about nutrients and drive food reward. Such signals are disrupted by consuming large amounts of high-calorie foods, necessitating greater food intake to elicit a similar neural response. Non‐invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) via a branch innervating the ear is a candidate treatment for obesity in humans. There is disagreement on the optimal location of nVNS in the ear for experimental and clinical studies. There are also no studies comparing nVNS in hungry and post-prandial states. We aimed to compare ear position(s) for nVNS and explore the effects of nVNS during hungry and post-prandial states on proxies for autonomic outflow (heart-rate variability) and efferent metabolism (gastric wave frequency and resting energy expend...
In subclinical depression in undergraduates, odor-evoked autobiographical memories are relatively less vivid than those evoked with words or photographs.
YAR BERÇEM | Üngüder Yağmur | VELDHUİZEN MARİA GERALDİNE
The specificity of autobiographical memories is reduced in depression. Effects of depression on memory specificity have typically been examined using word cues, but odor cues may be more sensitive. Here, we measured depressive symptom severity in undergraduate students with and without subclinical depression (n = 99, 58 women, 40 men, and one nonbinary) and used word, photograph, or odor cues to examine memory retrieval. Overall, we observed more memories recalled in subclinical depression relative to no depression. We observed no effect of cue type or depression group on autobiographical memories specificity. However, subclinical depression was associated with lower memory pleasantness. Memory vividness was also associated with subclinical depression, mostly in memories evoked by odors. T...
CAN NON-INVASIVE VAGUS NERVE STIMULATION CONDITION PREFERENCE FOR NEW FLAVORS PAIRED WITH LOW-FAT FOODS?
Büyükgüdük, İlkim | Geraldine Veldhuizen, Maria | Yılmaz, Dilan Deniz | Dal, Uğur
Conditioned flavor preference can be formed when a novel flavor is associated with for example palatable taste and/ or with positive post-digestive effects. Recent research on the vagus nerve (VN) using chemogenetic and optogeneti stimulation has shown that vagal gut-brain communication underlies this learning. If VN activity triggers food reward, we predict that non-invasive VN stimulation (nVNS, compared to pseudo-stimulation) will condition liking for new flavors paired with low-fat foods. In order to select flavors for conditioning, 17 participants tasted and rated 10 flavors using the sip and-spit method. The participants rated liking and wanting. Two flavors that are similarly near to neutral in liking were chosen for the conditioning sessions. To induce associative conditioning, we ...
Tastes and retronasal odours evoke a shared flavour-specific neural code in the human insula
Veldhuizen Maria Geraldine
During food consumption, tastes combine with retronasal odours to form flavour, which leads to a link so robust that retronasal odours can elicit taste sensations without concurrent taste stimulation. However, the cortical integration of these parallel sensory signals remains unclear. Here, we combine a flavour-binding paradigm and functional neuroimaging to test whether retronasal odorants evoke encoding patterns in the insula similar to those of their paired tastants. Healthy participants attend a familiarisation session with congruent sweet and savoury flavours followed by two functional MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) sessions where they separately receive the constituent tastants and odorants. Multivariate pattern analysis reveal classification of retronasal odours within the insula,...