Fatty acid–induced gut-brain signaling attenuates neural and behavioral effects of sad emotion in humans

Abstract

Although a relationship between emotional state and feeding behavior is known to exist, the interactions between signaling initiated by stimuli in the gut and exteroceptively generated emotions remain incompletely understood. Here, we investigated the interaction between nutrient-induced gut-brain signaling and sad emotion induced by musical and visual cues at the behavioral and neural level in healthy nonobese subjects undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjects received an intragastric infusion of fatty acid solution or saline during neutral or sad emotion induction and rated sensations of hunger, fullness, and mood. We found an interaction between fatty acid infusion and emotion induction both in the behavioral readouts (hunger, mood) and at the level of neural activity in multiple pre-hypothesized regions of interest. Specifically, the behavioral and neural responses to sad emotion induction were attenuated by fatty acid infusion. These findings increase our understanding of the interplay among emotions, hunger, food intake, and meal-induced sensations in health, which may have important implications for a wide range of disorders, including obesity, eating disorders, and depression.

Was Feuerbach right: are we what we eat?

“…The reports from Van Oudenhove et al (2) and Chuang et al (3) illustrate that the history of endocrinology has come full circle. Enteroendocrine hormones were the first hormones to be discovered and have regained great importance (e.g., glucagon-like peptide 1, gastric inhibitory polypeptide, CCK, and ghrelin).…”

“…Left: Van Oudenhove et al show in humans that gastric infusion of a fatty acid solution decreases experimentally induced sadness, as indicated by visual analog scores and neuroimaging (2). The underlying mechanisms may in part depend on CCK, as shown by a previous study (5).…”

“…However, the intricate relationship of body and mind is egalitarian in nature and bidirectional: the body is capable of powerfully modulating our emotions, as shown by both Van Oudenhove et al (2) and Chuang et al (3), and as witnessed by physicians every day. An example is the neonatologist who gives some sugar to a neonate before performing an invasive procedure to shorten the time the baby cries in pain (18).…”

Everyday happiness: Gifting and eating as everyday activities that influence general positive affect and discrete positive emotions

“…Sixth, desirable foods contain nutrients that are likely to have a direct physiological and perhaps also indirect psychological impact (Drewnowski, 1997;Leigh Gibson, & Green, 2002;Van Oudenhove et al, 2011). Whilst this nutrient-based physiological mechanism was clearly not contributing to the impact of gifting it may have played a role during the eating condition.…”

Examining the relationship between childhood victimization, health risk behaviors, and adult physical health outcomes among women on probation and parole.

“…When evaluating the relationship between childhood sexual victimization and obesity previous 13 research has repeatedly demonstrated that those who experience childhood sexual victimization are over 150% more likely to be obese (Chartier, Walker & Naimark, 2009;Felitti, 1991;Rohde et al, 2008). Further, gastrointestinal health outcomes have been researched with this population repeatedly, with findings showing higher rates of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), gastric discomfort threshold, and gastrointestinal disorders (Heitkemper et al, 2001;Paras et al, 2009;Van Oudenhove et al, 2011). Additional diseases of specific organ systems have also been linked to childhood sexual victimization, such as liver disease, breast problems, and ischemic heart disease (Dong et al, 2004;Hulme, 2004).…”