Cue-Reward Learning and Weight Gain in Youth (ChildLearn)

January 25, 2024 updated by: Kerri Boutelle, University of California, San Diego
The objective of the study is to compare children at low risk for obesity (two healthy weight parents) to children at high risk for obesity (two overweight parents) in their response rate to food taste and in their rate of learning using fMRI.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The primary aim of this project is to conduct an adequately powered study that compares children at low risk for obesity to children at high risk for obesity on their brain responses to food tastes during a pavlovian learning task. Seven assessment visits will be conducted at three separate time points; baseline, 1-year follow up, and 2-year follow up. Assessments will include anthropometry, interviews, computer tasks, questionnaires, and an fMRI scan. This program of research tests a novel hypothesis regarding overeating and the development of obesity in children, and could provide critical data on individual vulnerabilities to overeating for further research. Furthermore, this study could provide mechanisms for intervention with regards to cue-reward learning in children, to ultimately prevent obesity in youth.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

147

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • La Jolla, California, United States, 92093
        • UCSD Center for Healthy Eating and Activity Research (CHEAR)

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

8 years to 11 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Healthy-weight children (5-75thBMI%) between the ages of 8 and 11 years old with either two over-weight parents (BMI>25) or two healthy-weight parents (BMI = 18-24.9)

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Healthy weight children between the ages of 8 and 11 Years
  • BMI 5-75th percentile
  • Child must be right-handed
  • Child must be willing to participate in an fMRI scan
  • Either two biological parents who are overweight/obese or no biological parents that are overweight/obese
  • One biological parent willing to bring child to assessment visits
  • Child and participating parent Fluent in English for speaking, reading, and writing
  • Child must like cheese pizza and chocolate milkshake

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Child overweight (BMI≥85th percentile)
  • Child diagnoses of a serious chronic physical disease (e.g., diabetes) for which physician supervision of diet and exercise prescription are needed
  • Child who is taking medications that may impact brain responses (can take kids who are stable on meds)
  • Child with MRI contraindications (presence of metallic foreign object or device in body, piercings that cannot be removed, tattooed permanent makeup that contain metal, braces, head trauma, claustrophobia, use of Bigen permanent hair dye)
  • Child with an active eating disorder (reported on EDE interview) or with first degree relative with Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia Nervosa
  • Cognitive impairment or disability determined through parent and child self-report measures, and parent reported child individual education plan
  • Vision problems uncorrectable with lenses
  • Food allergies related to cheese pizza, chocolate milkshake, or the snack foods used in the study
  • Menarche in female participants at time of enrollment
  • Children scoring within the midpubertal range or higher based on the Pubertal Development Scale

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Children at high-risk for obesity
Healthy-weight children (5th-75thBMI%) with two overweight/obese parents (BMI>25)
Other: Functional MRI
Children at low-risk for obesity
Healthy-weight children (5th-75thBMI%) with two healthy-weight parents (BMI = 18-24.9)
Other: Functional MRI

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Cue-reward learning
Time Frame: Baseline only
Whether rate of the shift in BOLD response from food cue to neutral cue is different between high and low-risk children
Baseline only
Reward Sensitivity
Time Frame: Baseline only
Whether the BOLD response to food cue differs between high and low-risk children
Baseline only
Weight gain
Time Frame: Change from baseline at an average of 12 months and 24 months
Whether rate of cue reward and reward sensitivity predict weight gain
Change from baseline at an average of 12 months and 24 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of California, San Diego

Collaborators

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Kerri Boutelle, Ph.D., UCSD

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

December 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 27, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

December 27, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 16, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 16, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

August 18, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 29, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 25, 2024

Last Verified

January 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 161468
  • R01DK111106 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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