Sex-based differences in the neuronal mechanisms of food intake behavior

项目总结/摘要 肥胖率正在迅速上升，相关的健康和生活质量并发症也在迅速上升。因此，获得更好的 了解肥胖症的发展和维持的机制是至关重要的。因为 饮食和饮食行为是体重增加的核心因素， 是必需的.在这些过程中的一个关键变量，目前了解甚少是性别的影响。性- 在动物和人类的研究中一致地观察到饮食行为的基础差异。到目前为止， 然而，这些差异及其对我们理解饮食行为机制的影响， 没有得到很好的研究。在这种情况下，没有研究性效应，大大限制了我们对这些问题的理解。 重要的机制，可能导致不必要的重复研究，并可能导致 临床研究的可重复性。因此，研究性别特异性生物过程将导致更好的 了解潜在的机制，并将是了解这些机制如何 转化为行为。 饮食行为的性别差异涉及许多因素，如性腺激素，社会 压力和身体活动参与。这些因素也与参与神经元过程相互作用， 饮食行为。对食物摄入神经机制的性别差异的清晰理解 行为尚未建立。虽然以前的研究已经检查了神经元的性别差异， 对食物线索的反应，结果一直不一致。差异可能是由于样本量不足，缺乏 月经周期阶段的一致性，以及缺乏控制的食物摄入行为。享乐性饮食， 除了自我平衡的需要，可能特别与肥胖有关。因此，确定性别差异， 享乐主义饮食背后的神经生物学特别重要。为此，我们最近完成了一项 神经元对高（与中性）享乐性食物线索反应的性别差异的初步研究 值，在禁食和进食状态下。在禁食状态下观察到性别差异， 在女性比男性的核团和脑桥，大脑区域的突出作用，在食物相关的 奖励处理这可能表明，女性对食物的奖励方面更敏感， 禁食 这个应用程序的总体目标是扩大我们的初步研究结果，以更好地了解基于性别的 享乐饮食行为和食物奖励处理的神经生物学差异， 性腺激素促成了这些差异，以及这如何转化为现实生活中的饮食行为。

Project Summary/Abstract Obesity rates are rapidly rising, as are related health and quality-of-life complications. As such, gaining a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of obesity is critical. Because diet and eating behaviors are core contributors to weight gain, an improved understanding of these processes is required. A key variable in these processes that is currently poorly understood is the effect of sex. Sex- based differences in eating behaviors are consistently observed in both animal and human studies. To date, however, these differences, and their impact on our understanding of the mechanisms of eating behavior, have not been well studied. Failure to study sex effects in this context substantially limits our understanding of these important mechanisms, can result in unnecessary replication of research, and may contribute to problems of reproducibility in clinical research. As such, investigating sex-specific biological processes will lead to a better understanding of underlying mechanisms and will be a critical step in understanding how these mechanisms translate to behavior. Sex differences in eating behaviors involve a number of factors, such as gonadal hormones, social pressures, and physical activity engagement. These factors also interact with neuronal processes involved in eating behaviors. A clear understanding of sex differences in neuronal mechanisms underlying food intake behaviors has yet to be established. While previous studies have examined sex differences in neuronal response to food cues, results have been inconsistent. Disparities may be due to insufficient sample sizes, lack of menstrual cycle phase consistency, and lack of controlled food intake behavior. Hedonic eating, or eating beyond homeostatic needs, may be particularly associated with obesity. As such, identifying sex differences in neurobiology underlying hedonic eating is of particular relevance. To this end, we recently completed a preliminary investigation of sex differences in neuronal responses to food cues with high (vs. neutral) hedonic value, in both fasted and fed states. Sex differences were observed in the fasted state, with greater responses in women than men in the nucleus accumbens and insula, brain regions with prominent roles in food-related reward processing. This may indicate that women are more sensitive to rewarding aspects of foods when fasted. The overall goal of this application is to expand on our initial findings to better understand sex-based differences in the neurobiology underlying hedonic eating behaviors and food-based reward processing, how gonadal hormones contribute to these differences, and how this translates to real-life eating behaviors.