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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans
Published on: March 19, 2014
Appetite at high altitude: an fMRI study on the impact of prolonged high-altitude residence on gustatory neural
Xiaodan Yan1, Jiaxing Zhang, Qiyong Gong
1Laboratory for Higher Brain Function, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
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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