Food Reward Processing in the Human Brain

Completed

• Conditions: Healthy
• Interventions: Behavioral: Satiety State

• Registration Number: NCT03081585
• Lead Sponsor: University of Heidelberg Medical Center

Brief Summary

The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of different metabolic states and hormonal satiety signalling on responses in neural reward networks.

Detailed Description

Given the rapid development of obesity world-wide, a better understanding of the interaction between the encoding of food reward in mesocorticolimbic reward pathways and homeostatic energy regulation is of paramount importance for the development of new treatment strategies. Healthy participants will undergo functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a task distinguishing between the anticipation and the receipt of either food or monetary reward. Every participant will be scanned twice in a counterbalanced fashion, both during a state of hunger (after 24-hours fasting) and satiety. Blood samples will be collected to assess hormonal satiety signalling. We hope to provide new insights into the neurobiological underpinnings of motivational processing and hedonic evaluation of food reward.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2015-06-09
• Primary Completion: 2016-06-10
• Study Completion: 2016-06-10
• Study First Submitted: 2017-03-10
• Study First Submitted QC: 2017-03-15
• Study First Posted: 2017-03-16
• Status Verified: 2022-03
• Last Update Submitted: 2022-03-28
• Last Update Posted: 2022-03-29

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: Female
• Target Recruitment: 23

Inclusion Criteria

• BMI <25 kg/m² and >18.5 kg/m²
• no lifetime or current medical illness that could potentially affect appetite or body weight
• right-handedness
• normal or corrected-to-normal vision

Exclusion Criteria

• history of head injury or surgery
• history of neurological disorder
• severe psychiatric disorder (psychosis, bipolar disorder, substance abuse)
• smoking
• borderline personality disorder
• current psychotropic medication
• inability to undergo fMRI scanning (e.g. metallic implants, claustrophobia, Pacemakers)
• pregnancy

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Healthy Controls	Satiety State	Normal weight, healthy female participants

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Experimental fMRI task (incentive delay task)	22 min.	Participants were expecting food and monetary related reward, after a correct response to a simple task they received either food or monetary related reward.
Resting state brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging	5 min.	Functional brain imaging will be employed to assess functional connectivity in reward related brain networks.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Analysis of hormonal satiety signaling	30 min. before scanning	Blood is collected for the measurement of peripheral ghrelin. One blood sample at the start of the experiment will be collected.
Self-report questionnaire regarding eating behavior (Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire)	30 min.	Psychometric tests will be employed to assess eating behavior and eating disorder psychopathology (using the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire).