Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2013 May 1;73(9):877-86.
doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.01.014. Epub 2013 Feb 23.

Monetary reward processing in obese individuals with and without binge eating disorder

Iris M Balodis  1 , Hedy Kober, Patrick D Worhunsky, Marney A White, Michael C Stevens, Godfrey D Pearlson, Rajita Sinha, Carlos M Grilo, Marc N Potenza
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Monetary reward processing in obese individuals with and without binge eating disorder

Iris M Balodis et al. Biol Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: An important step in obesity research involves identifying neurobiological underpinnings of nonfood reward processing unique to specific subgroups of obese individuals.

Methods: Nineteen obese individuals seeking treatment for binge eating disorder (BED) were compared with 19 non-BED obese individuals (OB) and 19 lean control subjects (LC) while performing a monetary reward/loss task that parses anticipatory and outcome components during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Differences in regional activation were investigated in BED, OB, and LC groups during reward/loss prospect, anticipation, and notification.

Results: Relative to the LC group, the OB group demonstrated increased ventral striatal and ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity during anticipatory phases. In contrast, the BED group relative to the OB group demonstrated diminished bilateral ventral striatal activity during anticipatory reward/loss processing. No differences were observed between the BED and LC groups in the ventral striatum.

Conclusions: Heterogeneity exists among obese individuals with respect to the neural correlates of reward/loss processing. Neural differences in separable groups with obesity suggest that multiple, varying interventions might be important in optimizing prevention and treatment strategies for obesity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All other authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Group differences on the Monetary Incentive Delay Task in ventral fronto-striatal areas in obese individuals with binge eating disorder (BED) (n = 19), obese individuals without BED (OB) (n = 19), and a lean comparison (LC) (n = 19) group at z = −17, −11, −6. Brain activation maps demonstrate differences in the A2 winning phase (A2W) (associated with the anticipation of potentially winning money), the A2 losing phase (A2L) (associated with the anticipation of potentially losing money), the outcome winning phase (OCW) (associated with the receipt of a monetary reward), and the outcome losing phase (OCL) (associated with the loss of money). All contrast maps are thresholded at an uncorrected level of p < .05 two-tailed and family-wiseerror-corrected at p < .05. Blue color demonstrates areas where subjects show relatively less activation, and red color indicates where participants show relatively greater activation. The right side of the brain is on the right.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Coronal view of ventral striatal regions of interest (ROIs) with coordinates reported by Knutson and Greer (43). (A) Blue spots indicate a 5-mm sphere around the ventral striatum on the left [−12, 10,−2] and right [10, 8, 2] sides. (B) Coronal slice y = 10 demonstrates whole brain contrast between BED and OB groups during the A2 winning phase. Graphs depict percentage blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) signal change extracted from each 5-mm ROI on the right and left sides for the BED (blue) and OB (red) groups. (C) Coronal slice y = 10 demonstrates whole brain contrast between OB and LC groups during the A2 winning phase. Graphs depict percentage BOLD signal change extracted from each 5-mm ROI on the right and left sides for the OB (red) and LC (green) groups. (D) Coronal slice y = 10 demonstrates whole brain contrast between BED and LC groups during the A2 winning phase. Graphs depict percentage BOLD signal change extracted from each 5 mm ROI on the right and left sides for the BED (blue) and LC (green) groups. The right side of the brain is on the right. Abbreviations as in Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Coronal view of ventral striatal ROIs with coordinates based on reward processing findings by Breiter et al. (15). (A) Blue spots indicate a 6-mm sphere around the ventral striatum on the left (−12, 7, −10) and right (12, 7, −10) sides. (B) Coronal slice y = 10 demonstrates whole brain contrast between BED and OB groups during the A2 winning phase. Graphs depict percentage BOLD signal change extracted from each 6-mm ROI on the right and left sides for the BED (blue) and OB (red) groups. (C) Coronal slice y = 10 demonstrates whole brain contrast between OB and LC groups during the A2 winning phase. Graphs depict percentage BOLD signal change extracted from each 6-mm ROI on the right and left sides for the OB (red) and LC (green) groups. (D) Coronal slice y = 10 demonstrates whole brain contrast between BED and LC groups during the A2 winning phase. Graphs depict percentage BOLD signal change extracted from each 6-mm ROI on the right and left sides for the BED (blue) and LC (green) groups. The right side of the brain is on the right. Abbreviations as in Figures 1 and 2.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Di Chiara G. Dopamine in disturbances of food and drug motivated behavior: A case of homology? Physiol Behav. 2005;86:9–10. - PubMed
    1. Kelley AE, Baldo BA, Pratt WE, Will MJ. Corticostriatalhypothalamic circuitry and food motivation: integration of energy, action and reward. Physiol Behav. 2005;86:773–795. - PubMed
    1. Need AC, Ahmadi KR, Spector TD, Goldstein DB. Obesity is associated with genetic variants that alter dopamine availability. Ann Hum Genet. 2006;70:293–303. - PubMed
    1. DelParigi A, Chen K, Salbe AD, Reiman EM, Tataranni PA. Sensory experience of food and obesity: A positron emission tomography study of the brain regions affected by tasting a liquid meal after a prolonged fast. Neuroimage. 2005;24:436–443. - PubMed
    1. Matsuda M, Liu Y, Mahankali S, Pu Y, Mahankali A, Wang J, et al. Altered hypothalamic function in response to glucose ingestion in obese humans. Diabetes. 1999;48:1801–1806. - PubMed

Publication types