Reward Circuitry Responsivity to Food Predicts Future Increases in Body Mass: Moderating Effects of DRD2 and DRD4

By Eric Stice, Sonja Yokum, Cara Bohon, Nate Marti, A. Smolen. NeuroImage, 2010

331 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Objective To determine whether responsivity of reward circuitry to food predicts future increases in body mass and whether polymorphisms in DRD2 and DRD4 moderate these relations. Design The functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm investigated blood oxygen level dependent activation in response to imagined intake of palatable foods, unpalatable foods, and glasses of water shown in pictures. DNA was extracted from saliva samples using standard salting-out and solvent precipitation methods. Participants Forty-four adolescent female high school students ranging from lean to obese. Main Outcome Future increases in body mass index (BMI). Results Weaker activation of the frontal operculum, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, and striatum in response to imagined intake of palatable foods, versus imagined intake of unpalatable foods or water, predicted future increases in body mass for those with the DRD2 TaqIA A1 allele or the DRD4-7R allele. Data also suggest that for those lacking these alleles, greater responsivity of these food reward regions predicted future increases in body mass. Discussion This novel prospective fMRI study indicates that responsivity of reward circuitry to food increases risk for future weight gain, but that genes that impact dopamine signaling capacity moderate the predictive effects, suggesting two qualitatively distinct pathways to unhealthy weight gain based on genetic risk.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology, Psychiatry and Mental health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d7a86ab39006e7d575466b396d4fb5092d3470bf

How researchers see this paper

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In Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

1. James E. Cox
2. P. Kenny
3. Edwin W. Cook III
4. Rosalyn E. Weller

In Clinical Psychology

1. James E. Cox
2. Donna L. Murdaugh
3. P. Kenny
4. Edwin W. Cook III
5. Rosalyn E. Weller

Citations in the corpus

• Reward Mechanisms in Obesity: New Insights and Future Directions (2011, background): “…fragment length polymorphism is downstream from the D2R gene (Neville et al., 2004), and individuals carrying the A1 allele of the polymorphism have between 30%–40% fewer striatal D2Rs compared with those not carrying the allele (Jönsson et al., 1999; Ritchie and Noble, 2003; Stice et al., 2010b).”
• fMRI Reactivity to High-Calorie Food Pictures Predicts Short- and Long-Term Outcome in a Weight-Loss Program (2012, background): “…-PA Author M anuscript N IH -PA Author M anuscript N IH -PA Author M anuscript accumulating that overconsumption and weight gain can blunt the activation of reward areas by food (Colantuoni et al., 2001; Johnson and Kenny, 2010; Stice et al., 2010b; Val-Laillet et al., 2011; Wilcox et al., 2010).”