Food or money? Children's brains respond differently to rewards regardless of weight status.

BACKGROUND

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.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to assess the brain's response to multiple rewards and the relationship to body weight in children.

METHODS

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.

RESULTS

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.

CONCLUSION

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.