Sponsors
- National Institutes of Health
- The Doris Duke Foundation
- American Heart Association
Neural Mechanisms for Appetite Responses to High Reward Foods (RO1 DK102794)
Our Brain Response to Sugar study looks at how the brain responds to eating different types of sugars. We hope to learn how the brain responds to glucose and sucrose in young people and how this response may be different in people who are overweight and obese compared to people who are normal weight.
Glucose is a simple sugar found in many commercially available drinks, like juices and soft drinks. Glucose is rarely consumed by itself, therefore, we also evaluate the effects of table sugar (sucrose) and artificial sweetener (sucralose). This study may help us understand how specific sugars may cause us to eat too much and gain weight.
The Brain Response to Sugar Study is a registered clinical trial. To learn more, please visit our clinicaltrials.gov study page or contact us at pagelab@usc.edu.
Participate in this Study
You may be eligible to participate if you are:
- Between the ages of 18-35
- Have no history of diabetes
- Right Handed
- Have no non-removable metal (e.g. retainer) in body that would conflict with an MRI
The BRS-2 study will involve the following:
- A screening history & physical exam
- Up to 4 study sessions which include drinking a sweet beverage, answering questionnaires, blood sampling, and fMRI scans
You WILL be compensated for your time.
Related studies
Neuroeconomics of sugars (R21 DA042272)
This project uses brain imaging and behavioral assessments to examine acute metabolic effects of glucose and sucralose (relative to water) on subsequent reward signaling and intertemporal decision making. This is done both in the context of monetary rewards (using the Monetary Incentive Delay Task and the Intertemporal Monetary Choice Task) and in the context of food rewards (using the Food Bidding Task). Because participants in this study are drawn from the pool that completed the ‘Brain Response to Sugar’ study, endocrine response derived in that study can be related to reward signaling and decision-making effects observed here.
featured presentations
Brain response to sweet food cues following acute sucralose consumption predicts caloric and sugar intake
- Sucralose may alter responsiveness to sweet foods in the environment in a way that water or caloric sugar do not.
- NNS may be less effective for some people than others to reduce subsequent caloric intake.
- Randomized control trials and intervention studies may not account for individual differences in direct behavioral responses to NNS, possibly explaining inconsistent conclusions about effectiveness of NNS.
The Influence of Inhibitory Control on Dietary Restraint
- ACC might be more strongly recruited to inhibit action or appetitive response to food cues in leaner people than those with higher BMIs during a fed state.
- Higher cognitive inhibitory control may be associated with more dietary restraint and a lower propensity to overeating behaviors.
- Future research should examine the association between cognitive inhibitory control and response to a food-related inhibitory control task.
Endocrine, Neural and Behavioral Responses to Acute Non-caloric Sweetener Ingestion
- Sucralose and water had comparable effects on circulating levels of insulin, PYY, GLP-1, and ghrelin hormones.
- Obese participants showed greater CBF response to sucralose and an attenuated CBF reduction to glucose compared to lean participants.
- The amygdala, known to be involved in brain reward processing, showed the most robust differential response in obese compared to lean participants to the consumption of sucralose.
- Obese and lean participants consumed more calories after ingestion of non-caloric drinks (sucralose and water) than after glucose drink.
- After sucralose drink ingestion, obese participants consumed significantly more calories compared to lean participants.