Neural Mechanisms Associated with Nicotine Addiction and Obesity Co-Morbidities

描述(申请人提供)：吸烟和肥胖是美国最主要的可预防的死亡原因。行为研究表明，与体重正常的吸烟者相比，肥胖吸烟者对尼古丁奖励的敏感度可能较低。神经成像研究表明，吸烟者对吸烟线索反应过敏，肥胖组对食物线索反应过敏。参与奖赏处理和行为控制的大脑区域之间存在着显著的重叠。这些发现增加了对吸烟、暴饮暴食和其他需要控制冲动的行为的共享神经网络模型的支持。然而，当一个人既是吸烟者又是肥胖者时，大脑的这些奖赏区域对食物和吸烟图像的反应知之甚少。这项研究的长期目标是增加我们对奖赏神经系统在肥胖和尼古丁成瘾并存的情况下如何做出不同反应的理解，这将为针对肥胖吸烟者的特定需求而设计的戒烟和体重管理治疗计划提供信息。这项拟议的研究项目将使用功能磁共振成像(FMRI)来检查奖励神经系统，同时肥胖和健康体重的吸烟者在扫描仪中观看食物和吸烟的图像。我们假设，与体重正常的吸烟者相比，肥胖吸烟者对食物提示的反应会增加，对吸烟提示的反应会减少。我们将在健康体重吸烟者和肥胖吸烟者查看吸烟提示和食物提示时扫描他们。该项目将解决以下具体目标：1.确定一组吸烟者(不管体重如何)对首选物质(食物或吸烟图像)进行线索处理的大脑系统特征。2.通过检测健康体重组和肥胖吸烟者组之间的fMRI激活差异，确定与共病肥胖和尼古丁成瘾相关的大脑反应。 公共卫生相关性：这项工作的结果对公共健康具有非常重要的意义，并可能有助于更好地理解肥胖和尼古丁成瘾的共病与大脑对食物和吸烟图像的反应的激活之间的关系。这项研究的发现将对了解肥胖和尼古丁成瘾的机制，以及肥胖和健康体重吸烟者的共病对大脑功能的影响具有重要意义。研究结果可能最终会导致更有效的干预措施。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Tobacco use and obesity are the top preventable causes of death in the United States. Behavioral studies show that obese smokers may be less sensitive to nicotine reward compared to healthy weight smokers. Neuroimaging studies demonstrate that smokers are hyper-responsive to smoking cues and obese groups are hyper-responsive to food cues. There is significant overlap between the brain regions involved in reward processing and behavioral control. These findings have added support to shared neural network models of smoking, overeating, and other behaviors requiring regulation of impulses. However, little is known about how these reward areas of the brain respond to food and smoking images when an individual is both a smoker and obese. The long term goal of this research is to increase our understanding of how the neural systems of reward differentially respond in the case of co-morbid obesity and nicotine addiction, which will inform smoking cessation and weight management treatment programs designed for the specific needs of obese smokers. The proposed research project will employ functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural systems of reward while obese and healthy weight smokers view food and smoking images in the scanner. We hypothesize that obese smokers will show increased responses to food cues and decreased responses to smoking cues compared to healthy weight smokers. We will scan healthy weight smokers and obese smokers while they view smoking cues and food cues. The project will address the following Specific Aims: 1. Characterize brain systems underlying cue processing of a preferred substance (food or smoking images) in a combined group of smokers (regardless of weight). 2. Identify brain responses associated with co-morbid obesity and nicotine addiction by examining fMRI activation differences between groups of healthy weight and obese smokers. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Results of this work are highly significant to public health and could lead to a better understanding of how co- morbidities of obesity and nicotine addiction relate to brain activations in response to food and smoking images. Findings from this study will have significant implications for understanding mechanisms of obesity and nicotine addiction, and the effects of co-morbidities on brain function in obese and healthy weight smokers. Findings may eventually lead to more effective interventions.