Sleep Duration Differentially Affects Brain Activation in Response to Food Images in Adolescents with Overweight/Obesity Compared to Adolescents with Normal Weight

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-12-2019

Publication Title

Sleep

Volume

42

Issue

4

First page number:

1

Last page number:

11

Abstract

Study Objectives Sleep is an important behavior that affects appetite and eating in adolescents. Our study examined food-related neural activation in brain regions associated with food reward and inhibition in adolescents under sleep-restricted and well-rested conditions. Methods In this within-subjects study, 52 adolescents (ages 12–18; 46% female; M age = 15.96 years, SD = 1.56) with normal weight (NW; N = 29, M body mass index % [BMI%] = 54.55, SD = 24.54) or overweight/obesity (OV/OB; N = 23, MBMI% = 93.78, SD = 4.60) spent 5 hours in bed at home each night for five consecutive nights and 9 hours in bed at home each night for 5 consecutive nights, with the first day of each condition occurring 4 weeks apart. The morning following each sleep modification period, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected while participants performed an inhibitory (go/no-go) task with food stimuli. Results We found significantly greater activation in brain regions associated with inhibition in adolescents with NW in response to food cues when sleep restricted. No increase in inhibition-related neural activation was observed in adolescents with OV/OB when sleep restricted. We also found neural activation consistent with greater reward processing associated with food cues following sleep restriction regardless of weight status. Conclusions These findings suggest that chronic sleep restriction may increase the likelihood of suboptimal dietary behavior for adolescents with OV/OB because they do not experience increased inhibition-related neural responding to counter possible increased reward-related neural responding following sleep restriction.

Keywords

Sleep duration; Food; Adolescents; Brain; Obesity

Disciplines

Pediatrics | Sleep Medicine

Language

English

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