Determining the Underlying Brain Mechanisms Relating to Diet and Exercise Adherence in Healthy and Obese Populations
Overview
Obesity is a major public health crisis in America and other parts of the world with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimating over 40% of adult Americans to be obese (2020). In addition to the effects on a person’s psychological health, obesity is linked to many of the chronic diseases that double as leading causes of death in the US and worldwide including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Overeating and the lack of exercise are key contributors to today’s obesity epidemic with ubiquitous fast-food options and people required to be less and less active in their daily lives. While there is no lack of available diet and exercise programs, they do not produce the same results for everyone, and adhering to a program is a major challenge for many.
One goal of our lab is to better understand the brain processes underlying reward processing and impulse control that contribute to obesity, weight loss, and successful adherence to diet and exercise programs. To accomplish this, the lab is focusing on resting-state functional neuroimaging data combined with behavioral data to better understand individual differences that may predict success on diet and/or exercise interventions, and hopefully develop more individualized intervention strategies.
References
Hales, C. M., Carroll, M. D., Fryar, C. D., & Ogden, C. L. (2020). Prevalence of Obesity and Severe Obesity Among Adults: United States, 2017-2018. NCHS data brief, (360), 1–8. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
Published protocols to learn more about the studies:
Herrmann, S. D., Martin, L. E., Breslin, F. J., Honas, J. J., Willis, E. A., Lepping, R. J., Gibson, C. A., Befort, C. A., Lambourne, K., Burns, J. M., Smith, B. K., Sullivan, D. K., Washburn, R. A., Yeh, H. W., Donnelly, J. E., & Savage, C. R. (2014). Neuroimaging studies of factors related to exercise: rationale and design of a 9 month trial. Contemporary clinical trials, 37(1), 58–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2013.11.007
Szabo-Reed, A. N., Breslin, F. J., Lynch, A. M., Patrician, T. M., Martin, L. E., Lepping, R. J., Powell, J. N., Yeh, H. W., Befort, C. A., Sullivan, D., Gibson, C., Washburn, R., Donnelly, J. E., & Savage, C. R. (2015). Brain function predictors and outcome of weight loss and weight loss maintenance. Contemporary clinical trials, 40, 218–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2014.12.008