Descripción del proyecto
Investigación sobre por qué los cambios a hábitos saludables son tan difíciles de mantener
Un menú de comida rápida típico, como una hamburguesa con patatas fritas y refresco, es rico en grasas saturadas, azúcar, sal y calorías y t un valor nutricional pobre. Además, no hay que hacer ningún esfuerzo: la comida rápida es fácil de obtener e incluso más fácil de comer. Sin embargo, los hábitos saludables son más difíciles de mantener. En el proyecto OBESITY_SPIRAL, financiado con fondos europeos, se analizará el factor de motivación relacionado con el esfuerzo en la obesidad, que es una gran amenaza para la salud del ser humano. Su objetivo es aportar información sobre los mecanismos neurocognitivos que subyacen a la toma de decisiones basada en el esfuerzo en personas obesas. Para lograrlo, se estudiará si la inflamación crónica de baja intensidad, que resulta del exceso de grasa corporal, puede afectar al sistema dopaminérgico del encéfalo y disminuir así el comportamiento de autorregulación.
Objetivo
Obesity is a major threat to human health, often characterized by increased consumption of energy-dense and easy-to-eat, ‘effortless fast food’. A better understanding of effort-related motivation in obesity is important to explain why healthy lifestyle changes are often so hard to maintain. Previously, I have demonstrated the neurocognitive and neurochemical processes underlying motivational control of behaviour. However, in obesity, findings about the motivation to overcome effort costs for food reward – and associated dopamine signalling - are inconsistent, suggesting another – yet unknown - variable. Here, I am the first to suggest that this variable is chronic low-grade inflammation - as a direct result of excess body fat. Peripheral inflammation can affect the brain dopamine system to decrease effortful behaviour, enforcing the downwards spiral of obesity. However, how an elevated inflammatory tone in obesity relates to effort-based decision-making is currently unknown. Here, I aim to elucidate the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying effort-based decision-making in human obesity and the explanatory role of inflammation, using both an observational and a supplementation design with the anti-inflammatory aspirin-like drug salsalate. Moreover, I will determine the causal role of dopamine in effort-based decision-making in obesity by employing acute administration of the dopamine precursor levodopa, and I will study levodopa’s effects as a function of inflammatory tone. I will develop a novel fMRI paradigm that dissociates food reward anticipation, reward sensitivity versus effort avoidance during effort decision, effort exertion and reward consumption. Lab findings will be translated to real life with experience sampling methods. This innovative, interdisciplinary approach will elucidate the inflammation-effort link in obesity and explain inconsistent findings about dopamine abnormalities and effortful behaviour in obesity.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitución de acogida
6525 XZ Nijmegen
Países Bajos