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

University of California San Diego

Status

Completed

Conditions

Overweight

Obesity

Treatments

Other: Functional MRI

Study type

Observational

Funder types

Other

NIH

Identifiers

NCT03254576

R01DK111106 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

161468

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Full 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.

Enrollment

147 patients

Sex

All

Ages

8 to 11 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

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