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

项目摘要/摘要 肥胖率正在迅速上升，与健康和生活质量相关的并发症也在迅速上升。因此，获得更好的 了解肥胖的发生和维持机制是至关重要的。因为 饮食和饮食行为是体重增加的核心因素，这是对这些过程的更好理解 是必需的。这些过程中的一个关键变量目前知之甚少，那就是性的影响。性爱- 在动物和人类的研究中，基于饮食行为的差异一直被观察到。到目前为止， 然而，这些差异，以及它们对我们理解饮食行为机制的影响，有 没有得到很好的研究。未能在此背景下研究性影响在很大程度上限制了我们对这些 重要的机制，可能导致不必要的研究重复，并可能导致 临床研究的重复性。因此，研究特定性别的生物过程将导致更好的 理解潜在的机制，将是理解这些机制如何 转化为行为。 进食行为的性别差异涉及许多因素，如性腺激素、社交 压力和体力活动参与度。这些因子还与神经过程相互作用，参与 进食行为。清楚地了解食物摄取背后的神经机制的性别差异 行为还有待确定。虽然之前的研究已经检查了神经元的性别差异 对食物提示的反应，结果一直不一致。差异可能是由于样本量不足、缺乏 月经周期时相一致，缺乏对进食行为的控制。享乐主义的饮食，或饮食 除了动态平衡的需要，可能与肥胖特别相关。因此，识别性别差异在 享乐主义饮食背后的神经生物学具有特别重要的意义。为此，我们最近完成了一项 高(中性)享乐性食物提示神经元反应的性别差异初步研究 价值，无论是在禁食状态还是在美联储状态。在禁食状态下观察到了性别差异，反应更强烈 在女性比男性更多的伏隔核和脑岛中，大脑区域与食物相关的作用最为突出 奖励处理。这可能表明，当女性对食物的有益方面更敏感时 禁食。 这个应用程序的总体目标是扩展我们的初步发现，以更好地理解基于性别的 享乐主义饮食行为和基于食物的奖励处理的神经生物学差异，如何 性腺激素导致了这些差异，以及这种差异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.