Brain Representation of Food Reward as a Function of Smoking Status

• Applicant: Dr. Katja Aschenbrenner
• Subject Area: Clinical Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Term: from 2006 to 2009
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 32461624

The goal of this pilot project is to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test the hypothesis that brain representation of food reward changes as a function of smoking status. If the data support this prediction then the results can be used for a further study to test whether brain and behavioral response to food can be used to predict weight gain during smoking cessation and to test whether there are pre-existing differences in brain response to food that may predict likelihood of becoming addicted. Understanding the relationship between nicotine addiction and feeding is important because fear of weight gain has been cited as a critical reason why young women fail to attempt to quit and actual weight gain has been identified as a chief cause of relapse in this group. If brain response does predict weight gain then we will have developed a method to identify individuals at risk for relapse so that they can be targeted for further therapeutic intervention.The specific aims of this project are: 1) To test the prediction that smoking status (smoker, non-smoker, acutely deprived smoker) influences perceptual and behavioural responses to food reward. 2) To use fMRI to test the prediction that an appetitive food odour induces greater activity in regions encoding incentive salience in acutely abstinent smokers compared to non-smokers and non-smokers compared to smokers.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professorin Dana M Small, Ph.D.