Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: The effects of weight status and sleep duration on adolescent cognitive functioning and food choice

DRMS 博士论文研究：体重状况和睡眠时间对青少年认知功能和食物选择的影响

• 批准号: 2049292
• 负责人: Aaron Fobian
• 金额: $ 2.51万
• 依托单位: University of Alabama at Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-02-01 至 2023-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2049292&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; DRMS; effects

Obesity represents one of our nation’s leading public health issues. In 2017, over 30% of U.S. high school students had either overweight (15.6%) or obesity (14.8%), and the average U.S. BMI continues to rise. Overall, this increasing trend is associated with earlier mortality and lower quality of life. Weight loss interventions typically target food intake and exercise, but maintenance of weight loss after these interventions is poor. Therefore, it is important to identify other factors beyond food intake and exercise that may contribute to improved prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity. This study aims to do this by investigating the roles of sleep and cognitive function (e.g. impulsivity) in relation to weight. Past research has demonstrated that poor cognitive function may lead to less healthy food choices. Poor sleep may exacerbate this problem, particularly in individuals with overweight and obesity that may be more vulnerable to changes in cognitive function following short sleep. Given these relationships, sleep may represent a target to prevent weight gain and improve obesity interventions. However, more research is needed to understand the relationships between weight, sleep, cognitive function, and food intake. This research investigates these relationships by having adolescents with normal weight and with overweight or obesity complete two sleep conditions, one in which they sleep for 4.5 hours for two nights and one in which they sleep for 9 hours for two nights. Each condition is followed by a self-serve breakfast and tests of cognitive function to assess the effects of weight status and sleep duration on food intake and cognitive function. The findings inform current obesity prevention programs and weight loss interventions and increase understanding of the factors related to weight gain. Overweight and obesity (OWOB) has traditionally been explained through energy balance, with weight loss interventions focusing on decreased food intake and increased energy expenditure. However, interventions targeting these mechanisms often fail to produce long-term changes in adiposity. Thus, identification of additional modifiable mechanisms is critical. For example, aspects of executive function, including cognitive flexibility and impulsivity, have been shown to be impaired in individuals with OWOB and may predict increased food consumption. Importantly, sleep restriction, which is common in adolescents with OWOB, also impairs cognitive function. Further, current fMRI evidence suggests that adolescents with OWOB are more vulnerable to changes in reward sensitivity following sleep restriction as compared to peers with normal weight (NW). However, this relationship has not been well evaluated in relation to performance-based cognitive function. Thus, this study aims to expand on present literature by exploring the roles of adiposity, sleep, and performance-based cognitive function in relation to observed food choice. Using a randomized crossover design, participants with NW and with OWOB will complete two conditions in a randomized order: a sleep-restricted condition in which participants sleep 4.5 hours for two nights and an adequate sleep condition in which participants sleep 9 hours for two nights. Conditions are separated by a 2-night washout period to prevent carryover effects. On the last night of each sleep condition, participants fast for 10 hours overnight before attending a morning lab visit. Upon arrival, they are given a self-serve breakfast of whole and processed breakfast foods, and food choice is measured. Following the self-serve breakfast, participants complete the Stroop test and NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery. Key relationships assessed are: 1) the relationships between body fat percent and outcomes of food choice and cognitive function; 2) the unique effects of, and interaction between, sleep and body fat percent in predicting food choice and cognitive outcomes; 3) the effects of cognitive function as a moderator in the relationship between adiposity and food choice when adolescents are adequately rested and sleep restricted. Overall, the findings strengthen foundational understanding of the cognitive mechanisms underlying OWOB and food choice, serving as a framework for future research in fields such as health behavior, physiology, and cognitive neuroscience. This project informs obesity prevention and treatment programs as well as public policy regarding adolescent academic environments and sleep guidelines.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

肥胖是我国主要的公共卫生问题之一。2017年，超过30%的美国高中生超重(15.6%)或肥胖(14.8%)，美国平均BMI继续上升。总体而言，这一增长趋势与较早的死亡率和较低的生活质量有关。减肥干预措施通常以食物摄入量和锻炼为目标，但在这些干预措施后保持减肥效果很差。因此，重要的是确定食物摄入量和锻炼之外的其他因素，这些因素可能有助于改善超重和肥胖的预防和治疗。这项研究旨在通过研究睡眠和认知功能(例如冲动)与体重的关系来实现这一点。过去的研究表明，认知功能不佳可能会导致选择不太健康的食物。睡眠不佳可能会加剧这一问题，特别是在超重和肥胖的人，他们可能更容易在短暂睡眠后认知功能发生变化。考虑到这些关系，睡眠可能是防止体重增加和改善肥胖干预的目标。然而，还需要更多的研究来了解体重、睡眠、认知功能和食物摄入量之间的关系。这项研究通过让体重正常、超重或肥胖的青少年完成两种睡眠条件来研究这些关系，一种是他们连续两晚睡4.5小时，另一种是他们连续两晚睡9小时。在每种情况下，都会有自助早餐和认知功能测试，以评估体重状况和睡眠时间对食物摄入量和认知功能的影响。这些发现为当前的肥胖预防计划和减肥干预措施提供了依据，并增加了对与体重增加相关的因素的理解。 超重和肥胖(OWOB)传统上是通过能量平衡来解释的，减肥干预措施的重点是减少食物摄入量和增加能量消耗。然而，针对这些机制的干预措施往往无法产生肥胖症的长期变化。因此，确定其他可修改的机制是至关重要的。例如，包括认知灵活性和冲动性在内的执行功能方面已被证明在OWOB患者中受到损害，并可能预示着食物摄入量的增加。重要的是，睡眠限制，这在患有OWOB的青少年中很常见，也会损害认知功能。此外，目前的功能磁共振成像证据表明，与正常体重的同龄人(NW)相比，OWOB青少年在睡眠限制后更容易受到奖励敏感度的影响。然而，这种关系在基于成绩的认知功能方面还没有得到很好的评估。因此，这项研究旨在通过探索肥胖、睡眠和基于表现的认知功能与观察到的食物选择的关系来扩展现有文献。使用随机交叉设计，患有NW和OWOB的参与者将按随机顺序完成两个条件：睡眠受限条件，参与者两晚睡4.5小时，以及充足睡眠条件，参与者两晚9小时睡眠。两个晚上的冲洗期将条件隔开，以防止结转影响。在每种睡眠状态的最后一晚，参与者在参加早上的实验室探视之前，彻夜禁食10个小时。到达后，他们会得到一份自助早餐，包括完整的和加工过的早餐食物，并对食物选择进行衡量。自助早餐后，参与者完成Stroop测试和NIH工具箱认知电池。评估的关键关系是：1)身体脂肪百分比与食物选择结果和认知功能之间的关系；2)睡眠和体脂百分比在预测食物选择和认知结果方面的独特效果及其相互作用；3)当青少年得到充分休息和睡眠限制时，认知功能在肥胖和食物选择之间的关系中作为调节因素的作用。总体而言，这些发现加强了对OWOB和食物选择背后的认知机制的基础性理解，为未来在健康行为、生理学和认知神经科学等领域的研究提供了框架。该项目为肥胖预防和治疗计划以及有关青少年学术环境和睡眠指南的公共政策提供信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。