Genetic associations with neural reward responsivity to food cues in children.

OBJECTIVE

To test associations of candidate obesity-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and obesity polygenic risk scores (PRS) with neural reward reactivity to food cues.

METHODS

After consuming a pre-load meal, 9-12-year-old children completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm with exposure to food and non-food commercials. Genetic exposures included rs9939609, rs571312, and a pediatric-specific obesity PRS. A targeted region-of-interest (ROI) analysis for 7 bilateral reward regions and a whole-brain analysis were conducted. Independent associations between each genetic factor and reward responsivity to food cues in each ROI were evaluated using linear models.

RESULTS

Analyses included 151 children ( = 10.9 years). Each rs9939609 obesity risk allele was related to a higher food-cue-related response in the right lateral hypothalamus after controlling for covariates including the current BMI -score  < 0.01), however, the association did not remain significant after applying the multiple testing correction. rs571312 and the PRS were not related to heightened food-cue-related reward responsivity in any examined regions. The whole-brain analysis did not identify additional regions of food-cue-related response related to the examined genetic factors.

CONCLUSION

Children genetically at risk for obesity, as indicated by the genotype, may be predisposed to higher food-cue-related reward responsivity in the lateral hypothalamus in the sated state, which, in turn, could contribute to overconsumption.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION

https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03766191, identifier NCT03766191.