Neurobehavioural and Cognitive Changes in Cancer Cachexia (CANCOG)

Participants will undergo an MRI scan lasting approximately 1 hour to examine the structure and function of the brain. During the scan, they will also be asked to perform computer based tasks. This is called functional MRI.

Participants will complete questionnaires covering subjective measures relating to food attitudes and intake, and report-based measures of relevant psychopathology including depression and anxiety. These will be derived from standardised scales already used clinically, including the setting of eating disorders and normative studies of the neuroscience of appetite.

"Participants will complete computer based tasks which are focused specifically on aspects of appetite-related and reward behaviours. Typically, such behaviours are characterised under the following sub-headings:~i) Motivation (the amount of effort, cognitive or physical, that a person is prepared to expend in order to gain access to food), ii) Valuation (the relative rating of foods in comparison to each other and to non-food items), and iii) Hedonic response (the subjective pleasure experienced in consumption) to food intake"