Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2014 Mar;35(3):918-28.
doi: 10.1002/hbm.22223. Epub 2013 Jan 10.

Differential effect of glucose ingestion on the neural processing of food stimuli in lean and overweight adults

Martin Heni  1 , Stephanie Kullmann, Caroline Ketterer, Martina Guthoff, Margarete Bayer, Harald Staiger, Fausto Machicao, Hans-Ulrich Häring, Hubert Preissl, Ralf Veit, Andreas Fritsche
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Differential effect of glucose ingestion on the neural processing of food stimuli in lean and overweight adults

Martin Heni et al. Hum Brain Mapp. 2014 Mar.

Abstract

Eating behavior is crucial in the development of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. To further investigate its regulation, we studied the effects of glucose versus water ingestion on the neural processing of visual high and low caloric food cues in 12 lean and 12 overweight subjects by functional magnetic resonance imaging. We found body weight to substantially impact the brain's response to visual food cues after glucose versus water ingestion. Specifically, there was a significant interaction between body weight, condition (water versus glucose), and caloric content of food cues. Although overweight subjects showed a generalized reduced response to food objects in the fusiform gyrus and precuneus, the lean group showed a differential pattern to high versus low caloric foods depending on glucose versus water ingestion. Furthermore, we observed plasma insulin and glucose associated effects. The hypothalamic response to high caloric food cues negatively correlated with changes in blood glucose 30 min after glucose ingestion, while especially brain regions in the prefrontal cortex showed a significant negative relationship with increases in plasma insulin 120 min after glucose ingestion. We conclude that the postprandial neural processing of food cues is highly influenced by body weight especially in visual areas, potentially altering visual attention to food. Furthermore, our results underline that insulin markedly influences prefrontal activity to high caloric food cues after a meal, indicating that postprandial hormones may be potential players in modulating executive control.

Keywords: fMRI; food; insulin; obesity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic time points for fMRI measurements, glucose (green open symbols) and insulin (red filled symbols) levels (see also Supporting Information Table 1 for values). [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
Figure 2
Figure 2
Main effect of body weight on the post load brain response to food pictures. Overweight subjects showed an increased response in the putamen (red) and occipital cortex (yellow) 30 and 120 min after water and glucose ingestion (color‐coded F‐value map; P < 0.001, uncorrected).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Interaction between body weight (lean vs. overweight), condition (glucose vs. water administration) and caloric content was revealed in the right precuneus and fusiform gyrus (color‐coded F‐value map; P < 0.001, uncorrected). Plots show post load response to high and low caloric food cues in the fusiform gyrus (red circle) after glucose and water ingestion in lean and overweight subjects expressed as parameter estimates (±SE). The response 30 and 120 min after ingestion were combined.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Negative relationship between increase in plasma insulin 120 min after glucose ingestion and the post load response to high caloric food in the prefrontal and parietal cortex (color‐coded T‐value map; P < 0.001, uncorrected for display). Plot shows significant correlation between the increase in insulin and the response of the OFC (r adj = −0.727, P < 0.001) (green circle, BA47) and ACC (r adj = −0.633, P = 0.001) (red circle, BA32) adjusted for BMI.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Appelhans BM (2009): Neurobehavioral inhibition of reward‐driven feeding: implications for dieting and obesity. Obesity 17:640–647. - PubMed
    1. Bagdade JD, Bierman EL, Porte D Jr (1967): The significance of basal insulin levels in the evaluation of the insulin response to glucose in diabetic and nondiabetic subjects. J Clin Invest 46:1549–1557. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Braet C, Crombez G (2003): Cognitive interference due to food cues in childhood obesity. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 32:32–39. - PubMed
    1. Camilleri M (2009): Peripheral mechanisms in the control of appetite and related experimental therapies in obesity. Regul Pept 156:24–27. - PMC - PubMed
    1. de Graaf C, Blom WA, Smeets PA, Stafleu A, Hendriks HF (2004): Biomarkers of satiation and satiety. Am J Clin Nutr 79:946–961. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources