This project aims at understanding the psychological mechanisms that are at stake in obesity.

Overeating and obesity are major public health issues. Besides the health problems they often entail (e.g., cardiovascular problems and diabetes), they are also associated with affective and cognitive impairments.
However, these alterations are still poorly understood and further research on this topic is thus crucial.
The aim of this project is to train certain cognitive abilities (executive functions) in a population of various Body Mass Indexes (BMI). These abilities will be trained by the means of different tasks, which will be adapted to be performed online with food-related stimuli. Before and after training, neuroimaging (fMRI) and behavioral testing will be used to assess the impact of training on the reactivity of the reward circuitry to food cues as well as emotion regulation, food intake and weight. In a nutshell, this project aims at a better understanding of the bidirectional links between food intake and affective and cognitive functioning.

Project duration

01.05.2021 - 30.04.2024

Persons

MSc Jeanne Richard
MSc Jeanne Richard Doctoral researcher, research and teaching assistant in psychology at UniDistance Suisse & PhD student in neuroscience at UniDistance Suisse and at the E3Lab, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Prof. Dr Géraldine Coppin
Prof. Dr Géraldine Coppin Supervision, responsible for the MS psychology program and associate professor of psychology at UniDistance Suisse & senior researcher and lecturer at the E3Lab, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Prof. Dr David Sander
Prof. Dr David Sander Co-supervision, director of the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, director of the E3Lab and full professor in psychology, University of Geneva, Switzerland