Abstract
BACKGROUND: Insulin resistance is a link between obesity and the associated disease risk. In addition to its role as an energy regulatory signal to the hypothalamus, insulin also modulates food reward. OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship of insulin sensitivity (SI) and fasting insulin with cerebral activation in response to food and non-food cues in children. METHODS: Twelve overweight Hispanic girls (age: 8-11) participated in two study visits, a frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance test and a functional neuroimaging session (GE HDxt 3.0Tesla) with visual stimulation tasks. Blocks of images (high calorie [HC], low calorie [LC] and non-food [NF]) were presented in randomized order. RESULTS: Comparing HC with NF, SI was inversely associated with activation in the anterior cingulate (r2 = 0.65; P < 0.05), the insula (r2 = 0.69; P < 0.05), the orbitofrontal cortex (r2 = 0.74; P < 0.05), and the frontal and rolandic operculum (r2 = 0.76; P < 0.001). Associations remained significant after adjustment for body mass index. Association of fasting insulin and cerebral activation disappeared after adjustment for waist circumference. CONCLUSION: In addition to weight loss, insulin sensitivity may pose an important target to regulate neural responses to food cues in the prevention of excessive weight gain.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 30-36 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | International Journal of Pediatric Obesity |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Feb 2015 |
Keywords
- Brain reward
- childhood obesity
- functional imaging
- insulin sensitivity
- CHILDREN
- RESISTANCE
- MATURATION
- RESPONSES
- GLUCOSE
- INDIVIDUALS
- ADOLESCENTS
- PERSISTENCE
- MOTIVATION
- ADIPOSITY