TY - JOUR
T1 - Diet as connecting factor
T2 - Functional brain connectivity in relation to food intake and sucrose tasting, assessed with resting-state functional MRI in rats
AU - Roelofs, Theresia J.M.
AU - Straathof, Milou
AU - van der Toorn, Annette
AU - Otte, Willem M.
AU - Adan, Roger A.H.
AU - Dijkhuizen, Rick M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP/2007-2013) [grant number 607310 (Nudge-it)], and by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research [NWO-VICI 016.130.662]. The funding sources had no involvement in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data, nor in the writing or submission of this article We thank Gerard van Vliet for technical assistance and hardware development, and Michel Sinke and Jeroen Verharen for advice and assistance on data analyses and visualization.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Authors. Journal of Neuroscience Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
PY - 2022/5
Y1 - 2022/5
N2 - Eating disorders and obesity form a major health problem in Western Society. To be able to provide adequate treatment and prevention, it is necessary to understand the neural mechanisms underlying the development of eating disorders and obesity. Specific brain networks have been shown to be involved in feeding behavior. We therefore hypothesized that functional connectivity in neural networks involved in feeding behavior is dependent on the status of homeostatic energy balance, thus on being hungry or satiated. To test our hypothesis, we measured functional connectivity and amplitudes of neural signals within neural networks in relation to food intake and sucrose tasting in rats. Therefore, 16 male Wistar rats, of which eight were food-restricted and eight were satiated, underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) at 9.4 T. Subsequently, half of these animals underwent a sucrose tasting procedure followed by a second rs-fMRI scan. Functional connectivity and amplitude of low-frequency signal fluctuations were statistically analyzed in a linear mixed model. Although we did not detect a significant effect of food intake on functional connectivity before sucrose tasting, there was a trend toward interaction between group (satiated vs. hungry) and treatment (sucrose tasting). Functional connectivity between feeding-related regions tended to decrease stronger upon sucrose tasting in satiated rats as compared to food-restricted rats. Furthermore, rs-fMRI signal amplitudes decreased stronger upon sucrose tasting in satiated rats, as compared to food-restricted rats. These findings indicate that food intake and sucrose tasting can affect functional network organization, which may explain the specific patterns in feeding behavior.
AB - Eating disorders and obesity form a major health problem in Western Society. To be able to provide adequate treatment and prevention, it is necessary to understand the neural mechanisms underlying the development of eating disorders and obesity. Specific brain networks have been shown to be involved in feeding behavior. We therefore hypothesized that functional connectivity in neural networks involved in feeding behavior is dependent on the status of homeostatic energy balance, thus on being hungry or satiated. To test our hypothesis, we measured functional connectivity and amplitudes of neural signals within neural networks in relation to food intake and sucrose tasting in rats. Therefore, 16 male Wistar rats, of which eight were food-restricted and eight were satiated, underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) at 9.4 T. Subsequently, half of these animals underwent a sucrose tasting procedure followed by a second rs-fMRI scan. Functional connectivity and amplitude of low-frequency signal fluctuations were statistically analyzed in a linear mixed model. Although we did not detect a significant effect of food intake on functional connectivity before sucrose tasting, there was a trend toward interaction between group (satiated vs. hungry) and treatment (sucrose tasting). Functional connectivity between feeding-related regions tended to decrease stronger upon sucrose tasting in satiated rats as compared to food-restricted rats. Furthermore, rs-fMRI signal amplitudes decreased stronger upon sucrose tasting in satiated rats, as compared to food-restricted rats. These findings indicate that food intake and sucrose tasting can affect functional network organization, which may explain the specific patterns in feeding behavior.
KW - feeding behavior
KW - magnetic resonance imaging
KW - neuroimaging
KW - rat brain
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075739558&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/jnr.24563
DO - 10.1002/jnr.24563
M3 - Article
C2 - 31769534
AN - SCOPUS:85075739558
SN - 0360-4012
VL - 100
SP - 1182
EP - 1190
JO - Journal of Neuroscience Research
JF - Journal of Neuroscience Research
IS - 5
ER -