Evaluating Motivation and Reward Mechanisms and Brain Substrates in Adults With Obesity

Obesity Clinical Trial

Official title: Evaluating Motivation and Reward Mechanisms and Brain Substrates in Adults With Obesity: Further Evidence That Obesity Affects Physical and Mental Health

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

Anhedonia and abnormalities in reward behavior are core features of overweight/obesity (OW), a highly prevalent condition within MDD populations, and is independently associated with reward disturbances. The investigators therefore aim to investigate the brain substrates subserving reward and motivation in adults with overweight/obesity.

The primary aim of this pilot study is to determine whether associations exist between obesity and decreased performance on the respective motivation/reward paradigms.

Clinical Trial Description

Herein, the investigators are primarily interested in three overlapping, yet distinct aspects, of anhedonia. The investigators are primarily interested in motivation, reward valuation, and reward learning towards addressing the measurement of each of these respective subdomains, eligible participants will complete validated gold standard measures (i.e. the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfRT) (reward valuation), Probabilistic Reward Task (PRT) (reward learning), and the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task (reward anticipation)).

Twenty adults with overweight/obesity will complete all tasks at a single visit with two of the tasks being completed prior to MRI and one of the tasks (i.e. EEfRT) will be completed during MRI acquisition.

The primary aim of this pilot study is to determine whether associations exist between obesity and decreased performance on the respective motivation/reward paradigms. In addition, associations between performance on reward tasks and functional connectivity, as measured by MRI and DTI, a secondary objective is to ascertain whether associations exist between performance on the motivation reward tasks and gold standard measures of food intake (i.e. food diary) and energy expenditure (i.e. calorimetry). ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Anhedonia
• Obesity

• NCT number: NCT03939676
• Study type: Observational
• Source: Brain and Cognition Discovery Foundation
• Status: Completed
• Start date: October 30, 2019
• Completion date: December 15, 2020