Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Decisions and Impulse Control in Nutrition Behavior

营养行为中决策和冲动控制的神经认知机制

• 批准号: 8633005
• 负责人: Susan L. Ames
• 金额: $ 36.53万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-04-01 至 2016-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8633005
• 关键词: Adolescent; Amygdaloid structure; Behavior; Binge Eating; Brain region; Corpus striatum structure; Cues; Decision Making; Dopamine; Drug usage; Eating; Exhibits; Exposure to; Fatty acid glycerol esters; Food; Food deprivation (experimental); Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Gambling; Goals; Habits; Imaging Techniques; Impulsive Behavior; Insula of Reil; Intervention; Iowa; Knowledge; Malignant Neoplasms; Measures; Modeling; Neural Pathways; Neurocognitive; Pattern; Performance; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Population; Prefrontal Cortex; Public Health; Questionnaires; Relative (related person); Research; Risk Behaviors; Risk Factors; Role; Self-control as a personality trait; Signal Transduction; Specific qualifier value; System; Testing; Translating; behavior measurement; cancer prevention; cancer risk; craving; deprivation; drug abuse prevention; experience; food consumption; improved; neuromechanism; novel; nutrition; obesity risk; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; social; substance abuse prevention; sugar

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project seeks to identify key neural pathways responsible for one's loss of ability to self-control and exert willpower when faced with tempting choices such as drugs. However, given the impracticality of using drugs in a population of adolescents, we will use food cues as a model to examine how calorie-rich food impacts activity within these neural systems. Three key neural systems are hypothesized to contribute to the loss of willpower to resist food, and these same neural systems have been implicated in the willpower to resist drugs: (1) a hyperactive amygdala-striatal (dopamine-dependent) neural system, which promotes cue-induced habitual behaviors; (2) a hypoactive prefrontal cortex neural system, which subserves decision-making and impulse control capacities; and (3) an altered insular cortex function, which responds to homeostatic and interoceptive signals triggered by states of deprivation, or by exposure to environmental cues that elicit craving. The insula translates these interoceptive signals into what subjectively become experienced as an urge, which in turn acts to (1) exacerbate the hypersensivity of the amygdala-striatal system, and (2) weaken the inhibitory function of the prefrontal system. Using BOLD functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques, we will test the hypothesis that high behavioral measures of consumption of foods that are high in fat and sugar, as measured by the Youth/Adolescent Questionnaire (YAQ), will correlate with (1) increased activity in an amygdala-striatal neural system that promotes habitual and impulsive behaviors, and (2) decreased activity in a prefrontal cortex system for decision-making and inhibitory control. We will also test the hypothesis that food deprivation induces an increased activation of the insular cortex with the consequence of exacerbating activity of the habit system, and weakening activity of the prefrontal system. The proposed research is of high public health significance as it advances knowledge for creating novel intervention strategies that are transferrable to the prevention of substance abuse. In particular, the current project is also relevant to cancer prevention as it advances knowledge that promotes healthier eating, avert compulsive eating, and reduce cancer risk behaviors.

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目旨在确定一个人在面对诸如毒品等诱人的选择时失去自控能力和发挥意志力的关键神经通路。然而，考虑到在青少年人群中使用药物的不可行性，我们将使用食物线索作为模型来研究富含卡路里的食物如何影响这些神经系统的活动。有三个关键的神经系统被假设为导致抵抗食物的意志力丧失，而这些神经系统也与抵抗药物的意志力有关：(1)过度活跃的杏仁核-纹状体（多巴胺依赖）神经系统，它促进了线索诱导的习惯性行为；(2)前额皮质神经系统功能低下，具有决策和冲动控制能力；(3)岛叶皮质功能的改变，它对由剥夺状态或暴露于引起渴望的环境线索引发的体内平衡和内感受信号作出反应。脑岛将这些内感受性信号转化为主观上被体验到的冲动，这反过来(1)加剧了杏仁核-纹状体系统的超敏反应，(2)削弱了前额叶系统的抑制功能。使用BOLD功能磁共振成像技术，我们将验证以下假设：青少年/青少年问卷（YAQ）测量的高脂肪和高糖食物的高行为测量将与(1)促进习惯和冲动行为的杏仁核-纹状体神经系统活动增加和(2)负责决策和抑制控制的前额皮质系统活动减少相关。我们还将测试一个假设，即食物剥夺会导致岛叶皮层的激活增加，从而加剧习惯系统的活动，削弱前额叶系统的活动。拟议的研究具有高度的公共卫生意义，因为它为创造可转移到预防药物滥用的新干预策略提供了知识。特别是，目前的项目也与癌症预防有关，因为它促进了促进健康饮食、避免强迫性饮食和减少癌症风险行为的知识。