Adise S, Geier C F, Roberts N J, White C N, Keller K L
Department of Nutritional Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
Pediatr Obes. 2019 Feb;14(2):e12469. doi: 10.1111/ijpo.12469. Epub 2018 Sep 21.
Brain responses to both food and monetary rewards have been linked to weight gain and obesity in adults, suggesting that general sensitivity to reward contributes to overeating. However, the relationship between brain reward response and body weight in children is unclear.
The objective of this study was to assess the brain's response to multiple rewards and the relationship to body weight in children.
We tested this by performing functional magnetic resonance imaging while children (7- to 11-years-old; healthy weight [n = 31], overweight/obese [n = 30]) played a modified card-guessing task to assess blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response to anticipating and winning food and money rewards. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were analysed using a region of interest and exploratory whole-brain approach.
Region of interest results demonstrated increased BOLD response in the striatum to anticipating food vs. neutral (control) and winning money vs. neutral. Whole-brain data showed that winning money vs. food was associated with increased activation in the striatum, as well as regions associated with cognitive control and emotion. Notably, for both approaches, these effects were independent of child weight status. Additionally, children's reported food responsiveness and emotional overeating were negatively correlated with the BOLD response in the left cingulate gyrus for winning food vs. money.
Overall, findings from this study show that regions associated with reward, cognitive control and emotion may play a role in the brain's response to food and money rewards, independently of how much the child weighs. These findings provide insight into reward sensitivity in children, which may have implications for understanding overeating and the development of obesity.
大脑对食物和金钱奖励的反应都与成年人的体重增加和肥胖有关，这表明对奖励的一般敏感性会导致暴饮暴食。然而，儿童大脑奖励反应与体重之间的关系尚不清楚。
本研究的目的是评估儿童大脑对多种奖励的反应以及与体重的关系。
我们通过功能磁共振成像进行测试，在此期间儿童（7至11岁；健康体重[n = 31]，超重/肥胖[n = 30]）进行一项改良的猜牌任务，以评估对预期和赢得食物及金钱奖励的血氧水平依赖（BOLD）反应。使用感兴趣区域和探索性全脑方法分析功能磁共振成像数据。
感兴趣区域的结果表明，与中性（对照）相比，纹状体对预期食物和赢得金钱的BOLD反应增加。全脑数据显示，与赢得食物相比，赢得金钱与纹状体以及与认知控制和情绪相关区域的激活增加有关。值得注意的是，对于这两种方法，这些影响均与儿童体重状况无关。此外，儿童报告的食物反应性和情绪性暴饮暴食与赢得食物与金钱时左侧扣带回的BOLD反应呈负相关。
总体而言，本研究结果表明，与奖励、认知控制和情绪相关的区域可能在大脑对食物和金钱奖励的反应中起作用，而与儿童体重无关。这些发现为儿童的奖励敏感性提供了见解，这可能对理解暴饮暴食和肥胖症的发展具有启示意义。
