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Appetite at high altitude: an fMRI study on the impact of prolonged high-altitude residence on gustatory neural processing

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Abstract

Regulation of food intake is very important for health. It has been reported that people have decreased appetite at high altitude (HA). The current study recruited long-term HA residents to participate in an fMRI experiment which involved food craving. Result shows that the HA group showed decreased activation in the neural circuit for food craving, accompanied by decreased activation in regions for cognitive control and increased activation in regions for emotional processing. Such results also reflect the decreased gray matter volume and the hypometabolism mechanism under prolonged hypoxia stress at HA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Higher Brain Function, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Xiaodan Yan, Jiaxing Zhang & Xuchu Weng

  2. Department of Physiology, Medical College of Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

    Jiaxing Zhang

  3. Cognitive Science Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA

    Xiaodan Yan

  4. Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Xiaodan Yan

  5. Huaxi Magnetic Resonance Research Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

    Qiyong Gong

Authors
  1. Xiaodan Yan
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  2. Jiaxing Zhang
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  3. Qiyong Gong
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  4. Xuchu Weng
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Correspondence to Jiaxing Zhang or Xuchu Weng.

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Yan, X., Zhang, J., Gong, Q. et al. Appetite at high altitude: an fMRI study on the impact of prolonged high-altitude residence on gustatory neural processing. Exp Brain Res 209, 495–499 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2516-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2516-8

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