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Food-related exploration across the menstrual cycle
A C S Nijboer1, M Sellitto2, M F L Ruitenberg3
1Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands.
Appetite
|February 11, 2024
Summary
Women
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Economics
- Human Physiology
Background:
- Decision-making involves trade-offs between exploiting known options and exploring novel ones.
- Environmental factors and female steroid hormones influence exploratory behavior.
- Human food preferences and intake vary across the menstrual cycle.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if food choice exploration changes across the human menstrual cycle.
- To determine the relationship between hormonal fluctuations and exploratory eating behavior.
Main Methods:
- 112 adult women rated food desirability and made binary food choices.
- Exploratory choices were assessed using a 'surprise box' paradigm.
- Participants reported menstrual cycle phase information.
Main Results:
- Exploratory food choices showed a significant increase in the middle to late menstrual cycle.
- This effect was independent of other food-related factors.
Conclusions:
- Hormonal fluctuations across the menstrual cycle are preliminarily linked to changes in food-related exploratory behavior in women.
- Further research with direct hormonal measurements is warranted.
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