Esther Aarts
 | This biographical article is written like a résumé. (September 2024) |
| Esther Aarts | |
|---|---|
| Born | Esther Aarts |
| 🏳️ Nationality | Dutch |
| 🎓 Alma mater | Radboud University, Donders Institute |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| 🌐 Website | http://www.esther-aarts.com/ |
Esther Aarts is a cognitive neuroscientist working at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour. Aarts is known for her work on the gut-brain axis and nutritional neuroscience to investigate how food affects brain function.
Education and career
Aarts was born in Eindhoven in 1980. She studied biology at Radboud University in Nijmegen,[1] then completed a MSc in Neurobiology in 2004. She obtained her PhD in Cognitive Neurosciences at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour in 2009 under supervision of Dr. Ardi Roelofs (Donders Centre for Cognition) and Dr. Miranda van Turennout (Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging).[2][better source needed]
Between 2008 and 2010, Aarts held a postdoctoral psychiatry position with Roshan Cools at Radboud University Medical Center. Afterwards, she got a Niels Stensen postdoctoral fellow position at University of California, Berkeley with Mark D'Esposito until 2012. In 2012, Aarts returned to the Cools lab, specialising on the effects of food reward on cognition. Aarts has held her role as an associate principal investigator and coordinator of the Food & Cognition research group at the Donders Institute since 2017.[3] In 2022, she was appointed as a full professor of Nutritional Neuroscience at the Faculty of Sciences of Radboud University.[1]
Research
Together with her team, the group aims to investigate the behaviour of people towards food from a decisional and motivational perspective, and to understand the effects that food decisions and emotions have on brain and behaviour in obesity, in aging and in psychiatric conditions, such as ADHD.[4] In studying these effects of food on brain functioning the Food & Cognition lab also takes the gut microbiome and the immune system into account. Previously, Aarts has investigated what kind of motivational control is associated with poor eating habits, such as when people eat beyond satiety. She explored whether this could be explained by automatic (habitual) responses and/or goal-directed and consequence-based control. To this end, Aarts studies how variations in the activation of certain brain regions that are dopamine-rich predict whether someone will put effort into getting a sugary reward when they are no longer hungry. In conclusion, a lot of her research aims to further the knowledge in the field of obesity.[5]
To examine body-brain connections, Aarts uses brain scans (functional MRI), biological measurements, and interventions with food supplements, medication, or lifestyle coaching.
Her project centered around the interaction between motivation and cognition, and understanding the role of dopamine in it.[6]
Selected publications
- Kohn, N.; Szopinska-Tokov, J.; Llera Arenas, A.; Beckmann, C.F.; Arias-Vasquez, A.; Aarts, E (2021-01-01). "Multivariate associative patterns between the gut microbiota and large-scale brain network connectivity". Gut Microbes. 13 (1). doi:10.1080/19490976.2021.2006586. ISSN 1949-0976. PMC 8726725 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 34856861 Check|pmid=value (help). - Duif, Iris; Wegman, Joost; Mars, Monica M; de Graaf, Cees; Smeets, Paul AM; Aarts, Esther (2020). "Effects of distraction on taste-related neural processing: a cross-sectional fMRI study". The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 111 (5): 950–961. doi:10.1093/ajcn/nqaa032. PMC 7198299 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 32173737 Check|pmid=value (help). - Papalini, S.; Michels, F.; Kohn, N.; Wegman, J.; van Hemert, S.; Roelofs, K.; Arias-Vasquez, A.; Aarts, E. (2019-02-01). "Stress matters: Randomized controlled trial on the effect of probiotics on neurocognition". Neurobiology of Stress. 10: 100141. doi:10.1016/j.ynstr.2018.100141. ISSN 2352-2895. PMC 6430409. PMID 30937347.
- Wegman, Joost; van Loon, Ilke; Smeets, Paul A. M.; Cools, Roshan; Aarts, Esther (2018-06-01). "Top-down expectation effects of food labels on motivation". NeuroImage. 173: 13–24. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.02.011. ISSN 1053-8119. PMID 29438844.
- Janssen, Lieneke K.; Duif, Iris; van Loon, Ilke; Wegman, Joost; de Vries, Jeanne H. M.; Cools, Roshan; Aarts, Esther (2017-02-01). "Loss of lateral prefrontal cortex control in food-directed attention and goal-directed food choice in obesity". NeuroImage. 146: 148–156. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.11.015. ISSN 1053-8119. PMID 27845255.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Esther Aarts appointed as professor of Nutritional Neuroscience | Radboud University". www.ru.nl. 2022-07-21. Archived from the original on October 5, 2022. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
- ↑ "About Esther Aarts – Esther Aarts, PhD". Retrieved 2024-03-18.
- ↑ "Food & Cognition - For healthy nutrition, lifestyle and behaviour". Food and Cognition. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
- ↑ "publications". Food and Cognition. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
- ↑ "Food, brain, and distractibility: Goal-directed versus habitual control of food intake". axa-research.org. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
- ↑ White, Robert; Aarts, Esther; D'Esposito, Mark (2013-02-12). "Interactions of Resting State Brain Networks, Dopamine, and Working Memory Behavior: A Resting State Functional MRI Study (S54.003)". Neurology. 80 (7_supplement). doi:10.1212/WNL.80.7_supplement.S54.003. ISSN 0028-3878.
External links
- Esther Aarts publications indexed by Google Scholar
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