Food and Cognition

Health and eating behaviour are closely linked. Scientitsts at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour study the brain processes underlying healthy versus unhealthy food choices as well as how food choices affect brain health. Scientists at Radboud University's Behavioural Science Institute (BSI) are researching how our social environment influences our eating behaviour.

Esther Aarts

“Mens sana in corpora sano” – a sound mind in a sound body – is what characterises the Food and Cognition sub-theme of the Healthy Brain Initiative. Food and the brain heavily influence each other in a bidirectional way: on the one hand, our diet influences our cognitive performance; on the other hand, our brain determines our eating behaviour. Esther Aarts is senior researcher at Radboud University’s Donders Institute and focuses her research on food and the brain.

Amanda Kiliaan

Amanda Kiliaan is associate professor and PI of the research group Cerebral circulation and cognition in mice. The central research theme of this group comprises effects of diets on neuronal systems ranging from neural development to neurodegeneration in aging, with emphasis on cerebral circulation in relation with neurodegenerative disorders (Stroke, Obesity, Alzheimer). An important tool within the research is neuroimaging on the 11.7 Tesla Bruker MR system with which several aspects of the cerebral hemodynamics are studied, like cerebral blood flow and vasoreactivity,  grey and white matter integrity with Diffusion Tensor Imaging  and connectivity with rs fMRI.