The impact of elevated body mass on brain responses during appetitive prediction error in postpartum women

Publication date: Available online 13 April 2019Source: Physiology & BehaviorAuthor(s): Grace E. Shearrer, Tonja R. Nansel, Leah M. Lipsky, Jennifer R. Sadler, Kyle S. BurgerAbstractRepeated exposure to highly palatable foods and elevated weight promote: 1) insensitivity to punishment in striatal regions and, 2) increased willingness to work for food. We hypothesized that BMI would be positively associated with negative prediction error BOLD response in the occipital cortex. Additionally, we postulated that food reinforcement value would be negatively associated with negative prediction error BOLD response in the orbital frontal cortex and amygdala. Postpartum women (n = 47; BMI = 25.5 ± 5.1) were ‘trained’ to associate specific cues paired to either a highly palatable milkshake or a sub-palatable milkshake. We then violated these cue-taste pairings in 40% of the trials by showing a palatable cue followed by the sub-palatable taste (negative prediction error). Contrary to our hypotheses, during negative prediction error (mismatched cue-taste) versus matched palatable cue-taste, women showed increased BOLD response in the central operculum (pFWE = 0.002; k = 1680; MNI: -57, −7,14) and postcentral gyrus (pFWE = 0.006, k = 1219; MNI: 62, −8,18). When comparing the matched sub-palatable cue-taste to the negative prediction error trials, BOLD response increased in the postcentral gyrus (r = −0.60, pFWE = 0.008), putamen (r = −0....

Source: Physiology and Behavior - April 13, 2019 Category: Physiology Source Type: research