Esther Aarts is a cognitive neuroscientist working at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour. Aarts is known for her work on how food affects brain function, including research on the gut-brain axis,

nutritional neuroscience Nutritional neuroscience is the scientific discipline that studies the effects various components of the diet such as minerals, vitamins, protein, carbohydrates, fats, dietary supplements, synthetic hormones, and food additives have on neuroch ...

, and

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, considered by multiple organizations to be a disease, in which excess Adipose tissue, body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it can potentially have negative effects on health. People are classifi ...

Education and career

Aarts was born in Eindhoven in 1980. She studied biology at

Radboud University Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, , formerly ) is a public research university located in Nijmegen, Netherlands. RU has seven faculties and more than 24,000 students. Established in 1923, Radboud University has consistently been included in ...

in Nijmegen, then completed a M.Sc. in Neurobiology in 2004. She obtained her Ph.D. in Cognitive Neurosciences at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour in 2009 under supervision of Ardi Roelofs and Miranda van Turennout. Between 2008 and 2010, Aarts held a postdoctoral psychiatry position with Roshan Cools at

Radboud University Medical Center The Radboud University Medical Center (Dutch: ''Radboudumc''), is the teaching hospital affiliated with the Radboud University, in the city of Nijmegen in the eastern-central part of the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, infor ...

. Afterwards, she got a Niels Stensen postdoctoral fellow position at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

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. In 2022, she was appointed as a full professor of

Nutritional Neuroscience Nutritional neuroscience is the scientific discipline that studies the effects various components of the diet such as minerals, vitamins, protein, carbohydrates, fats, dietary supplements, synthetic hormones, and food additives have on neuroch ...

at the Faculty of Sciences of

Research

Aarts' early research investigated motivational control associated with poor eating habits, as she studied how variations in the

activation In chemistry and biology, activation is the process whereby something is prepared or excited for a subsequent reaction. Chemistry In chemistry, "activation" refers to the reversible transition of a molecule into a nearly identical chemical or ...

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. More recent research investigates the behaviour of people towards food from a decisional and

motivation Motivation is an mental state, internal state that propels individuals to engage in goal-directed behavior. It is often understood as a force that explains why people or animals initiate, continue, or terminate a certain behavior at a particul ...

al perspective, and seeks to understand the effects that food decisions and emotions have on brain and behaviour in

, in

aging Ageing (or aging in American English) is the process of becoming Old age, older until death. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi; whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentiall ...

and in psychiatric conditions. In studying these effects of food on brain functioning she takes the

gut microbiome Gut microbiota, gut microbiome, or gut flora are the microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses, that live in the digestive tracts of animals. The gastrointestinal metagenome is the aggregate of all the genomes of the g ...

and the

immune system The immune system is a network of biological systems that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to bacteria, as well as Tumor immunology, cancer cells, Parasitic worm, parasitic ...

into account. To examine body-brain connections, Aarts uses brain scans (

functional MRI Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area o ...

), biological measurements, and interventions with

food supplements A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement a person's diet by taking a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extracted from food sources, or that are synthetic ( ...

, medication, or lifestyle coaching.

Selected publications

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aarts, Esther Living people Radboud University Nijmegen alumni Academic staff of Radboud University Nijmegen 1980 births Women neuroscientists Obesity researchers