Neuronal and behavioral effects of an implicit priming approach to improve eating behaviors in obesity

项目摘要/摘要 减肥与减少肥胖相关的健康风险有关，但预防肥胖可能是困难的 随之而来的体重恢复更具挑战性。因此，理解能源背后的机制 平衡调节和确定成功减肥和保持体重的策略是重要的目标， 是美国国立卫生研究院肥胖研究战略计划的关键组成部分。 食物摄取是一个复杂的过程，涉及动态平衡信号(例如，与食欲相关的激素)和 非稳态信号(例如，增强食品的特性)。一个可能导致易感性的因素 肥胖是对高卡路里食物的高反应性，高卡路里食物促进了卡路里的摄取。食物偏好 涉及习得的联想，被认为是通过重复配对经典条件作用而发展起来的 外部刺激。提高我们对这些过程和过程背后的神经机制的理解 尝试改变它们可能是一种有用的减肥和维护策略。因此，建议的 这项研究旨在调查旨在改变情感的干预对神经元和行为的影响 与食物的关联，使用一种新的隐式启动(IP)范式，在该范式中，正价态或负价态 图像直接呈现在食物图像之前，但不是有意识地感知。我们假设IP地址 会改变与食物摄入有关的神经元和行为反应，降低对高热量食物的吸引力 并促进减肥和保养。 该项目的目标是进一步描述干预背后的神经机制，建立 IP对长期食物偏好和饮食行为的影响，并确定它是否可以促进体重- 超重/肥胖者的损失维持。IP对视觉食物神经元反应的影响 饮食行为的线索和衡量标准(食物摄入量、偏好)将不仅被敏锐地测量，而且 在每周IP给药12周后，在减肥维持的背景下。重量和 将在干预前后测量身体成分，并在12周内评估持久影响 在干预结束后。参与者将被随机分配到活动IP、控制IP(带加扰 图像作为质数)，或主动对照，提示暴露疗法(CET)。基于性别的差异也将是 经过检查，研究发现女性有更强烈、更频繁的食物渴望，更多的神经元 对享乐主义食物暗示的反应，以及对厌恶的敏感度高于男性。神经成像技术在这方面的应用 研究将提供比单独的行为测量更敏感的测量，并将有助于识别 干预改变行为的机制。如果项目的目标实现了，它就不会 不仅产生了关于食物摄取行为的神经生物学的新信息，而且还可能代表一种潜在的 治疗和预防肥胖症的新干预措施。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Weight loss is associated with a reduction in obesity-related health risks, but can be difficult, with preventing subsequent weight regain even more challenging. As such, understanding mechanisms underlying energy balance regulation and identifying strategies for successful weight loss and maintenance are important goals, and are key components of the Strategic Plan for NIH Obesity Research. Food intake is a complex process involving homeostatic signals (e.g., appetite-related hormones) and non-homeostatic signals (e.g., reinforcing properties of food). One factor that may contribute to susceptibility to obesity is a high responsivity to high-calorie foods, which promotes increased caloric intake. Food preferences involve learned associations thought to develop via classical conditioning through repeated pairings with external stimuli. Improving our understanding of the neuronal mechanisms underlying these processes and attempting to modify them may be a useful strategy for weight loss and maintenance. Therefore, the proposed study aims to investigate the neuronal and behavioral effects of an intervention designed to alter affective associations with food, using a novel implicit priming (IP) paradigm, in which positively or negatively valenced images are presented immediately prior to food images, but not consciously perceived. We hypothesize that IP will alter neuronal and behavioral responses related to food intake, reducing the appeal of high-calorie foods and promoting weight loss and maintenance. The project goals are to further delineate the neuronal mechanisms underlying the intervention, establish the impact of IP on longer-term food preferences and eating behavior, and determine if it can facilitate weight- loss maintenance in individuals with overweight/obesity. Effects of IP on neuronal responses to visual food cues and measures of eating behaviors (food intake, preferences) will be measured not only acutely, but also following 12 weeks of weekly IP administrations, within the context of weight-loss maintenance. Weight and body composition will be measured before and after the intervention, and, to assess lasting effects, 12 weeks after the intervention has ended. Participants will be randomized to active IP, control IP (with scrambled images as primes), or to an active control, cue exposure therapy (CET). Sex-based differences will also be examined, as studies have observed women to have stronger, more frequent food cravings, greater neuronal response to hedonic food cues, and greater sensitivity to disgust than men. The use of neuroimaging in this study will provide a more sensitive measure than behavioral measures alone and will help to identify mechanisms through which the intervention changes behavior. If the project aims are achieved, it would not only yield new information about the neurobiology of food intake behavior, but also could represent a potential novel intervention for treatment and prevention of obesity.