Leptin Is Associated With Exaggerated Brain Reward and Emotion Responses to Food Images in Adolescent Obesity

• DOI: 10.2337/dc14-0525
• Publication Date: 2014-08-20T04:31:01Z
• Authors: Ania M. Jastreboff; Cheryl Lacadie; Dongju Seo; Jessica Kubat; Michelle A. Van Name; Cosimo Giannini; Mary Savoye; R. Todd Constable; Robert S. Sherwin; Sonia Caprio; Rajita Sinha
• Keywords: Putamen; Brain stimulation reward; Orbitofrontal cortex

OBJECTIVE In the U.S., an astonishing 12.5 million children and adolescents are now obese, predisposing 17% of our nation’s youth to metabolic complications obesity, such as type 2 diabetes (T2D). Adolescent obesity has tripled over last three decades in setting food advertising directed at children. Obese adults exhibit increased brain responses images motivation-reward pathways. These neural alterations may be attributed obesity-related changes, which promote craving high-calorie (HCF) consumption. It is not known whether these changes affect adolescent during a crucial period for establishing healthy eating behaviors. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Twenty-five obese (BMI 34.4 kg/m2, age 15.7 years) fifteen lean 20.96 15.5 underwent functional MRI exposure HCF, low-calorie (LCF), nonfood (NF) visual stimuli h after isocaloric meal RESULTS Brain HCF relative NF cues versus striatal-limbic regions (i.e., putamen/caudate, insula, amygdala) (P < 0.05, family-wise error [FWE]), involved emotion processing. Higher endogenous leptin levels correlated with activation all subjects FWE). CONCLUSIONS This significant association between higher circulating hyperresponsiveness suggests that dysfunctional signaling contribute risk overconsumption foods, thus further development T2D.