Esther Aarts
Esther Aarts | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1980 Eindhoven, Netherlands |
| Occupation(s) | Cognitive neuroscientist, professor |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Known for | Research on nutrition effects on neural processes, Gut–brain axis, neurobiological aspects of obesity |
Esther Aarts is a cognitive neuroscientist affiliated with the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, where she investigates the effects of nutrition on neural processes. Her expertise encompasses areas such as the Gut–brain axis, nutritional neuroscience, and the neurobiological aspects of obesity.
Education and career
Aarts was born in Eindhoven in 1980. She pursued biology studies at Radboud University, obtaining her M.Sc. degree in Neurobiology in 2004. She earned her doctorate in Cognitive Neurosciences from the Donders Institute in 2009, conducting research under the supervision of Ardi Roelofs and Miranda van Turennout.
Between 2008 and 2010, she served as a postdoctoral researcher in psychiatry with Roshan Cools at Radboud University Medical Center. Subsequently, she received a Niels Stensen fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, working alongside Mark D'Esposito until 2012. Upon returning to Cools’ laboratory, her focus shifted toward studying how food rewards affect cognitive functions. Since 2017, Aarts has held the position of associate principal investigator and leads the Food & Cognition research group at the Donders Institute. In 2022, she was promoted to full professor of Nutritional neuroscience within Radboud University's Faculty of Sciences.
Research
Initially, Aarts concentrated on motivational control mechanisms related to unhealthy eating behaviors, particularly examining how dopamine-enriched brain areas regulate effort toward sugary rewards when individuals are not experiencing hunger. Her more recent investigations center on decision-making and motivational processes tied to food, analyzing how dietary choices and emotional states influence brain activity and behavior across populations affected by obesity, aging, and psychiatric disorders. Her work also incorporates the role of the gut microbiome and immune responses to clarify body-brain interactions. Methodologically, Aarts utilizes functional MRI alongside biological assays and implements interventions such as dietary supplementation, pharmacological treatments, and lifestyle coaching to explore these dynamics.
Selected publications
- Kohn N., Szopinska-Tokov J., Llera Arenas A., Beckmann C.F., Arias-Vasquez A., Aarts E. (2021). Multivariate associative patterns between the gut microbiota and large-scale brain network connectivity. Gut Microbes, 13(1).
- Duif I., Wegman J., Mars M.M., de Graaf C., Smeets P.A.M., Aarts E. (2020). Effects of distraction on taste-related neural processing: a cross-sectional fMRI study. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 111(5), 950–961.
- Papalini S., Michels F., Kohn N., Wegman J., van Hemert S., Roelofs K., Arias-Vasquez A., Aarts E. (2019). Stress matters: Randomized controlled trial on the effect of probiotics on neurocognition. Neurobiology of Stress, 10, 100141.
- Wegman J., van Loon I., Smeets P.A.M., Cools R., Aarts E. (2018). Top-down expectation effects of food labels on motivation. NeuroImage, 173, 13–24.
- Janssen L.K., Duif I., van Loon I., Wegman J., de Vries J.H.M., Cools R., Aarts E. (2017). Loss of lateral prefrontal cortex control in food-directed attention and goal-directed food choice in obesity. NeuroImage, 146, 148–156.