EASTBIO: The Real Deal: Behavioural and neural responses to real food objects and their images

This fully funded, 4-year PhD project is part of a competition funded by the BBSRC EASTBIO Doctoral Training Partnership.

Understanding what drives human food cravings and choices is a question that spans multiple disciplines, including neuroscience, psychology, medicine, nutrition, and marketing. Within neuroscience, there is growing interest in how food is represented and processed in the human brain, and which food properties are neurally encoded during viewing. Recent studies suggest that food might even serve as an organising feature within the ventral cortical streams (e.g., the infero-temporal cortex in humans), similar to the neural representations of faces and places.

Psychological research has primarily examined the cognitive and behavioural mechanisms of food perception, focusing on attentional biases and approach-avoidance behaviour. It is well established that food captures attention and triggers approach responses. However, key questions remain: how are these cognitive and behavioural responses modulated by specific food properties such as calorie density, state of processing, naturalness, or immediate accessibility? Furthermore, what neural representations underlie behaviourally relevant food properties, and what is the time course of their representation?

Importantly, a significant limitation of existing behavioural and neural studies is their reliance on images of food rather than real stimuli. While image-based studies have provided valuable insights, they leave an important question unanswered: Do findings from images translate to real food objects, relevant to everyday choices made by humans? This is particularly critical as evidence suggests that behavioural responses to real objects differ significantly from those to images, indicating that they may be processed in distinct ways in the brain.

This PhD project therefore aims to address these gaps by:

1. Systematically investigating how different food properties modulate attentional, behavioural, and neural responses.
2. Comparing responses to food presented as real objects versus as images of the same set of food stimuli.
3. Examining the link between neural activity and behavioural responses using multivariate techniques (e.g., Representational Similarity Analysis) that allow comparison between behavioural and neural patterns.
4. Employing cutting-edge neurophysiological (EEG) and psychophysical methods, the project will uncover the mechanisms underlying food perception and the organisation of food properties in the human brain.

This project is ideal for candidates with a strong background in psychology, neuroscience, or related disciplines. Experience with neurorecording (EEG), programming (e.g., MATLAB), or experimental design is beneficial but not essential, as training will be provided. The candidate will gain expertise in the design of ecologically valid experiments, programming, advanced data analysis (EEG and motion tracking), and image acquisition and manipulation.

For further project information please contact the lead project supervisor by selecting the first listed name at the top of this advert and sending your enquiry.

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ELIGIBILITY:

Applicants should hold a minimum of a 2:1 UK Honours degree (or international equivalent) in a relevant subject. Those with a 2:2 UK Honours degree (or international equivalent) may be considered, provided they have (or are expected to achieve) a Distinction or Commendation at master’s level.

We encourage applications from all backgrounds and communities, and are committed to having a diverse, inclusive team.

All students must meet the eligibility criteria as outlined in the UKRI guidance on funding for postgraduate training and development. This guidance should be read in conjunction with the Terms and conditions for training funding – UKRI.

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APPLICATION PROCEDURE:

• Please visit this page for full application information: https://biology.ed.ac.uk/eastbio/how-to-apply
• Please send your completed EASTBIO application form, along with academic transcripts and certificates to pgrs-admissions@abdn.ac.uk
• Please ensure that two references are submitted by the deadline using the EASTBIO reference form (available here). If the references are not included with your application, they must be sent directly to pgrs-admissions@abdn.ac.uk with the subject line: "EASTBIO Reference – [Your Name]".
• It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that references are submitted by the deadline (17^th January). We will not request academic references on your behalf.
• Please ensure you submit all the required information and documentation. Due to workload constraints, we are unable to follow up on missing documents or process incomplete applications.

If you require any additional assistance in submitting your application or have any queries about the application process, please don't hesitate to contact us at pgrs-admissions@abdn.ac.uk