Journal Articles
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915
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Item Do you remember? Consumer reactions to health-related information on snacks in repeated exposure(Elsevier Ltd, 2025-05) Stickel L; Poggesi S; Grunert KG; Lähteenmäki L; Hort JHealth-related information on pre-packed food products can enhance purchase intention and healthy choices. However, retained positive influence of health-related information on product liking is necessary to help consumers make informed decisions about a healthy diet in the long term. According to information-reduction theory, consumers reduce the amount of information that is processed in repeated exposure. Hence, increasing familiarity with a product could lead to increased levels of ignoring health-related information and an increasing reliance on product experience-based associations. These effects were tested in a laboratory study, involving actual food tasting and repeated exposure across two sessions. Participants (N = 154) were invited to evaluate yoghurts with and without health-related information with a screen representation of the product packaging. Differences in product evaluations and attention paid to health-related information between the two sessions were recorded using both implicit and explicit methods. Findings reveal that, despite a decrease in visual attention to health-related information, the perceived healthiness of the products remained stable. However, consumers reported lower perceived tastiness when health-related information was present. The findings underscore the importance of compelling taste experiences, as taste beliefs, in contrast to health beliefs, consistently influenced product liking. Finally, the findings emphasised the need for a comprehensive understanding of consumer reactions to healthier food products that considers both implicit and explicit responses.Item Evaluation of insensibility in humane slaughter of teleost fish including the use of electroencephalogram with a case study on farmed barramundi (Lates calcarifer)(Elsevier B V, 2024-09-15) Wahltinez SJ; Cohen S; Hardy-Smith P; Huynh C; Kells NHumane slaughter methods for fish are an important facet of responsible farming practice that can both minimise animal distress and improve product quality. In addition, consumers are increasingly demanding good welfare across all phases of farmed animal production, including at slaughter. As a result, many intergovernmental organisations, government bodies, and third-party certification schemes now include fish slaughter practices in their legislation, guidelines, and audit schemes. In order to be considered humane, slaughter methods should not be aversive to the fish and should result in rapid insensibility without recovery of consciousness prior to death. Where the act of slaughter does not cause immediate loss of sensibility, this should be preceded by an effective stunning method that induces rapid insensibility that is maintained until death. However, determining when fish are insensible is challenging. The effective evaluation of insensibility and stunning is important to prevent any suffering or distress that might occur when invasive killing methods, such as bleeding or evisceration, are used. Insensibility may be assessed using observable indicators such as fish behaviour, or objectively through measuring brain activity using electroencephalography. There is concern that observable indicators, such as opercular movement, righting responses, and spontaneous movement, may not be reliable signs of insensibility. It is therefore important to validate these observable indicators using objective measures, which can determine when electrical changes in the brain occur that indicate insensibility. Barramundi (Lates calcarifer) are an important aquaculture species that are farmed worldwide. Currently, this species is usually slaughtered by ice slurry immersion, a practice which has raised welfare concerns in other fish species. The objectives of this review are to provide background on current slaughter methods used for teleost fish, to summarise the methods used to evaluate insensibility in fish at stunning and slaughter, and to describe the current practices and future directions for the slaughter of farmed barramundi.Item Alterations in rhythmic and non‐rhythmic resting‐state EEG activity and their link to cognition in older age(Elsevier Inc, 2023-03) Cesnaite E; Steinfath P; Jamshidi Idaji M; Stephani T; Kumral D; Haufe S; Sander C; Hensch T; Hegerl U; Riedel-Heller S; Röhr S; Schroeter ML; Witte AV; Villringer A; Nikulin VVWhile many structural and biochemical changes in the brain have previously been associated with older age, findings concerning functional properties of neuronal networks, as reflected in their electrophysiological signatures, remain rather controversial. These discrepancies might arise due to several reasons, including diverse factors determining general spectral slowing in the alpha frequency range as well as amplitude mixing between the rhythmic and non-rhythmic parameters. We used a large dataset (N = 1703, mean age 70) to comprehensively investigate age-related alterations in multiple EEG biomarkers taking into account rhythmic and non-rhythmic activity and their individual contributions to cognitive performance. While we found strong evidence for an individual alpha peak frequency (IAF) decline in older age, we did not observe a significant relationship between theta power and age while controlling for IAF. Not only did IAF decline with age, but it was also positively associated with interference resolution in a working memory task primarily in the right and left temporal lobes suggesting its functional role in information sampling. Critically, we did not detect a significant relationship between alpha power and age when controlling for the 1/f spectral slope, while the latter one showed age-related alterations. These findings thus suggest that the entanglement of IAF slowing and power in the theta frequency range, as well as 1/f slope and alpha power measures, might explain inconsistencies reported previously in the literature. Finally, despite the absence of age-related alterations, alpha power was negatively associated with the speed of processing in the right frontal lobe while 1/f slope showed no consistent relationship to cognitive performance. Our results thus demonstrate that multiple electrophysiological features, as well as their interplay, should be considered for the comprehensive assessment of association between age, neuronal activity, and cognitive performance.Item Bedside EEG predicts longitudinal behavioural changes in disorders of consciousness(Elsevier Inc, 2020) Bareham CA; Roberts N; Allanson J; Hutchinson PJA; Pickard JD; Menon DK; Chennu SProviding an accurate prognosis for prolonged disorder of consciousness (pDOC) patients remains a clinical challenge. Large cross-sectional studies have demonstrated the diagnostic and prognostic value of functional brain networks measured using high-density electroencephalography (hdEEG). Nonetheless, the prognostic value of these neural measures has yet to be assessed by longitudinal follow-up. We address this gap by assessing the utility of hdEEG to prognosticate long-term behavioural outcome, employing longitudinal data collected from a cohort of patients assessed systematically with resting hdEEG and the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) at the bedside over a period of two years. We used canonical correlation analysis to relate clinical (including CRS-R scores combined with demographic variables) and hdEEG variables to each other. This analysis revealed that the patient’s age, and the hdEEG theta band power and alpha band connectivity, contributed most significantly to the relationship between hdEEG and clinical variables. Further, we found that hdEEG measures recorded at the time of assessment augmented clinical measures in predicting CRS-R scores at the next assessment. Moreover, the rate of hdEEG change not only predicted later changes in CRS-R scores, but also outperformed clinical measures in terms of prognostic power. Together, these findings suggest that improvements in functional brain networks precede changes in behavioural awareness in pDOC. We demonstrate here that bedside hdEEG assessments conducted at specialist nursing homes are feasible, have clinical utility, and can complement clinical knowledge and systematic behavioural assessments to inform prognosis and care.
