Translating Neuroscience to Population Health

Changing How the Brain Responds When Making Decisions: Translating Neuroscience to Population Health

The current study will examine the relationship between brain responses and a guided imagery exercise in overweight and obese individuals. Results of this work are highly relevant to public health because they employ neuroimaging methods to understand food decision-making. Findings from this study will inform health decision making and holds great potential for future translation across multiple health behaviors and scalable interventions to impact population health

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Overweight and Obesity
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Guided Imagery

Detailed Description

Negative health behaviors (e.g. overeating, smoking) are associated with increased negative health outcomes. Engaging in healthy behaviors is not always rewarding (e.g. carrot vs. cake). Neural models of healthy behaviors focus on the balance between reward and regulation brain regions. The current pilot application examines the engagement of these regions during the evaluation of food and nonfood cues before and after a guided imagery exercise targeting positive associations with food and regulation.

The long-term goal is to understand the interaction between positive associations with healthy foods and thinking about future rewards may influence healthy decision-making. The objective of the current study is to empirically test the combined effects of positive affect and positive episodic future thinking on brain activation.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 20
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Kansas
    • Kansas City, Kansas, United States, 66160
      • University of Kansas Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 55 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• body mass index 25 to 55 kg/m2
• right-handed
• not currently dieting or attempting to lose weight.

Exclusion Criteria:

• serious medical illness unsuitable for the magnetic resonance imaging scanner based on best clinical judgment
• any neurologic or current psychiatric diagnosis
• currently taking anti-seizure medication
• history of concussion
• left-handedness
• risk for hazard due to magnetic fields such as metal in the body surgically or accidentally
• pregnancy

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Guided Imagery; Participants will listen to a guided imagery recording	Behavioral: Guided Imagery; The guided imagery exercise asks participants to think about positive associations with healthy foods and imagine their future healthy selves.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Brain Activation in Self-Regulation Brain Regions	Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging will measure brain activation changes in self-regulation brain regions including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex when participants view healthy compared to unhealthy food images before and after the guided imagery exercise	1 hour
Brain Activation in Reward Brain Regions	Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging will measure brain activation changes in reward brain regions including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and striatum when participants view healthy compared to unhealthy food images before and after the guided imagery exercise	1 hour

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Food Choice	Observational preference for healthy compared to unhealthy food choices measured by the number of healthy and unhealthy foods selected following the guided imagery exercise	1 hour
Food Demand	Behavioral changes in demand for healthy compared to unhealthy foods will be measured by asking participants to indicate how healthy and unhealthy food items they would eat in a day if the items were freely available	1 hour

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Kansas Medical Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 24, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 11, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): July 11, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 29, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 3, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): June 6, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 5, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 2, 2019
• Last Verified: August 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Body Weight; Overweight
• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY00142526

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: Yes
• IPD Plan Description: De-identified data for primary outcomes will be made available
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data will be available 1-year after study completion
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Researchers may contact the Principal Investigator to request the data and will be required to sign research sharing agreements with the institution before gaining access.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: Study Protocol; Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP); Informed Consent Form (ICF)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No