Ultraprocessed food valuation fMRI (ds007693)
Ultraprocessed foods elicit distinct metabolic and neural responses when compared to non-ultraprocessed foods
Task fMRI and T1-weighted brain MRI of healthy-weight adults bidding on pictures of ultraprocessed and non-ultraprocessed foods, from a Virginia Tech study of food processing and reward. 57 adults aged 18 to 45, four auction runs each, 3T Siemens Prisma, BIDS, under CC0.
Overview
This OpenNeuro dataset holds the brain imaging of a Virginia Tech study on how the degree of food processing changes metabolism and food reward. The DiFeliceantonio lab scanned healthy-weight young adults while they placed bids on pictures of foods, half ultraprocessed and half not, that were matched on nutrients. The study is reported in Nature Metabolism (Hutelin et al. 2026) and the images were released in 2026 under a CC0 waiver.
Composition
Snapshot 1.0.0 contains 57 participants, the full enrolled sample. Every subject folder has one T1-weighted anatomical image, four task fMRI runs of the food auction and reverse phase-encoded EPI field maps. The paper reports a mean age of 26.2 years (SD 6.85), 18 men among the 57, and a mean BMI of 22.75. Eligibility required an age of 18 to 45, a BMI of 18.5 to 25, and no metabolic, neurological or psychiatric disorder. A subset of 32 people also completed two whole-room calorimetry sessions with test meals; those metabolic data are in a separate Virginia Tech repository, not on OpenNeuro.
Acquisition
All scans come from one 3T Siemens MAGNETOM Prisma with a 64-channel head coil at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in Roanoke. Functional runs used multiband EPI (factor 4) with a 1.5 s TR, 34 ms TE and 2 mm isotropic voxels. The anatomical scan is an MPRAGE-type sequence at 0.9 mm isotropic resolution. In each run participants bid between 0 and 5 USD on 28 foods (14 ultraprocessed, 14 not) in a Becker-DeGroot-Marschak auction; event files hold the onsets and bids.
Annotations
There are no image annotations. Task event files record the presented food and the willingness-to-pay bids.
Known limitations
- The release has no participants.tsv, so age and sex cannot be matched to subjects.
- The README lists five subjects left out of the analyses: two for head motion, one for equipment failure and two for unusable bids. Several other subjects miss one or two runs in the paper's analyses.
- The sample is small, young, healthy-weight and from one site, so it does not cover overweight or clinical groups.
Cohort
Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 57 subjects.
Sex
- Male 18 100%
Covers 18 of 57 subjects.
Extended Data Table 1 in Hutelin et al. 2026, Metabolic and neural responses to ultraprocessed foods, Nature Metabolism
Condition
Groups can overlap
- Healthy control 57 100%
Methods (Recruitment and screening) in Hutelin et al. 2026, Metabolic and neural responses to ultraprocessed foods, Nature Metabolism
Scanner vendor
- Siemens Healthineers 57 100%
Methods (MRI acquisition parameters) in Hutelin et al. 2026, Metabolic and neural responses to ultraprocessed foods, Nature Metabolism
Country
- United States 57 100%
Methods (Recruitment and screening) in Hutelin et al. 2026, Metabolic and neural responses to ultraprocessed foods, Nature Metabolism
Age
mean 26.2 ± 6.9
No age bins reported.
Extended Data Table 1 in Hutelin et al. 2026, Metabolic and neural responses to ultraprocessed foods, Nature Metabolism
Contrast / sequence
Groups can overlap
- T1-weighted 57 100%
- BOLD fMRI 57 100%
anat/sub-*_T1w.nii.gz, func/sub-*_task-auction*_bold.nii.gz in File listing of ds007693 snapshot 1.0.0 (CC0), counted per subject folder from anat and func NIfTI files
Field strength
- 3 T 57 100%
Methods (MRI acquisition parameters) in Hutelin et al. 2026, Metabolic and neural responses to ultraprocessed foods, Nature Metabolism
Contrast combinations
How many subjects have exactly each set of contrasts.
| T1w | bold | Subjects with exactly this set |
|---|---|---|
57 |
anat and func NIfTI files in File listing of ds007693 snapshot 1.0.0 (CC0), counted per subject folder from anat and func NIfTI files
License and access
Our reading of the license, not legal advice. Before you use the data, read the original license and confirm that your use is allowed. We take no responsibility for how you use a dataset. Full disclaimer
Download without an account
Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Universal
Public domain dedication. Do anything with the data, including commercial use, without asking and without having to give credit.
dataset_description.json of snapshot 1.0.0 states "License" CC0.
What you can do
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
What you can share
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
What you must do
- No
- Share alike No
- No
- No
- Manuscript review No
- Release code No
- Return results No
- Delete after use No
Limits
- No
- Location limits No
Citation
Hutelin Z, Ahrens M, Baugh ME, Nartey E, Herald DL III, Hanlon AL, DiFeliceantonio AG. Metabolic and neural responses to ultraprocessed foods: a randomized, controlled, crossover study. Nature Metabolism (2026). doi:10.1038/s42255-026-01619-4. Dataset: OpenNeuro ds007693, doi:10.18112/openneuro.ds007693.v1.0.0.
Sources
Every number on this page comes from one of these documents. Each chart names the table or page it is taken from. The raw numbers are in stats.csv.
- Hutelin et al. 2026, Metabolic and neural responses to ultraprocessed foods, Nature Metabolism paper
- OpenNeuro ds007693 snapshot 1.0.0 (README, dataset_description.json and snapshot summary) website
- File listing of ds007693 snapshot 1.0.0 (CC0), counted per subject folder from anat and func NIfTI files computed