THE BRAIN RESPONSE TO FOOD PORTION SIZE AND ENERGY DENSITY IN 7-10 YEAR OLD CHILDREN
Open Access
- Author:
- English, Laural Kelly
- Graduate Program:
- Nutritional Sciences
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 09, 2016
- Committee Members:
- Kathleen Loralee Keller, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Kathleen Loralee Keller, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Barbara Jean Rolls, Committee Member
Rebecca L Corwin, Committee Member
Charles Geier, Outside Member
Marian Tanofsky-Kraff, Special Member - Keywords:
- Portion size
energy density
pediatric obesity
neuroimaging
appetitive traits
inhibitory control
reward
food cues
fMRI
hypothalamus
inferior frontal gyrus
orbitofrontal cortex - Abstract:
- Obesogenic food environments contain factors that encourage overconsumption, including large portion sizes (PS) of foods high in energy density (ED, kcal/g). However, the mechanisms underlying why and how large PS and high ED food cues promote excess energy intake remain unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the brain mechanisms underlying the effects of food PS and ED. This study examined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) activity in response to images of foods at two levels of PS (Large PS, Small PS) and two levels of ED (High ED, Low ED) using a block design in 7 – 10 year old children. Results included: 1) both increased and decreased activity to large relative to small PS food cues in a brain region involved in inhibitory control; 2) both increased and decreased activity in response to high relative to low ED food cues in areas of the brain known to function in appetite regulation, reward-, and sensory-processing; and 3) parent-rated appetitive traits previously associated with higher body weight (i.e., greater food enjoyment, faster eating, and emotional overeating) were related to activity in appetitive brain regions when viewing large PS food cues. Collectively, our findings suggest that children may use brain mechanisms to process information about food PS cues that are different from those used to process ED cues, specifically in cognitive control areas compared to reward- and sensory-processing regions respectively. Additionally, how the brain responds to large portions may also be related to habitual eating behaviors. These studies are the first to report the brain response to food PS and ED in children. This work may inform development of tailored strategies to combat overeating based on brain responsiveness to food cues and patterns of eating behavior.