TY  - JOUR
AB  - Obesity represents a significant public health concern and is linked to various comorbidities and cognitive impairments. Previous research indicates that elevated body mass index (BMI) is associated with structural changes in white matter (WM). However, a deeper characterization of body composition is required, especially considering the links between abdominal obesity and metabolic dysfunction. This study aims to enhance our understanding of the relationship between obesity and WM connectivity by directly assessing the amount and distribution of fat tissue. Whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was employed to evaluate total adipose tissue (TAT), visceral adipose tissue (VAT), and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), while MR liver spectroscopy measured liver fat content in 63 normal-weight, overweight, and obese males. WM connectivity was quantified using microstructure-informed tractography. Connectome-based predictive modeling was used to predict body composition metrics based on WM connectomes. Our analysis revealed a positive dependency between BMI, TAT, SAT, and WM connectivity in brain regions involved in reward processing and appetite regulation, such as the insula, nucleus accumbens, and orbitofrontal cortex. Increased connectivity was also observed in cognitive control and inhibition networks, including the middle frontal gyrus and anterior cingulate cortex. No significant associations were found between WM connectivity and VAT or liver fat. Our findings suggest that altered neural communication between these brain regions may affect cognitive processes, emotional regulation, and reward perception in individuals with obesity, potentially contributing to weight gain. While our study did not identify a link between WM connectivity and VAT or liver fat, further investigation of the role of various fat depots and metabolic factors in brain networks is required to advance obesity prevention and treatment approaches.
AU  - Okudzhava, L.*
AU  - Schulz, S.*
AU  - Fischi-Gomez, E.*
AU  - Girard, G.*
AU  - Machann, J.
AU  - Koch, P.J.*
AU  - Thiran, J.P.*
AU  - Münte, T.F.*
AU  - Heldmann, M.*
C1  - 70294
C2  - 55491
CY  - 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, Nj Usa
TI  - White adipose tissue distribution and amount are associated with increased white matter connectivity.
JO  - Hum. Brain Mapp.
VL  - 45
IS  - 5
PB  - Wiley
PY  - 2024
SN  - 1065-9471
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The growing global obesity issue emphasizes the importance of understanding its health implications. Previous research has identified consistent alterations in gray matter (GM) volume in connection with obesity. Given the various implications of distinct fat compartments and the potential role of adipose tissue-derived adipokines in brain health, a more detailed investigation of adiposity is required. This study investigates a sample of 65 males with varying body mass indices to explore the relationship between various fat compartments, adipokine levels, and volumetric GM variations, aiming to provide a deeper understanding of the interplay between adiposity, brain structure, and metabolic signals. Whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to assess total, visceral, and subcutaneous adipose tissue, while MR spectroscopy was performed to capture liver fat content. For the assessment of adipokine levels leptin and adiponectin concentrations were measured, and structural brain images underwent cortical and subcortical segmentation for GM volume and thickness. A predictive modeling approach with leave-one-out cross-validation was used to predict body composition metrics and adipokine levels based on structural GM data. Our investigation revealed diminished GM volume and thickness correlated with elevated leptin levels in areas crucial for appetite regulation, decision-making, and cognitive control, including the anterior insula, orbitofrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex. These findings suggest a potential adverse impact of heightened leptin concentrations on brain health and eating habits. Contrary to expectations, our investigation found no significant relationship between GM volume and any of the measured fat compartments. This result prompts the need for further research to elucidate the relationship between obesity, adipokines, and brain structure.
AU  - Okudzhava, L.*
AU  - Schulz, S.*
AU  - Pilorz, V.*
AU  - Oster, H.*
AU  - Fischi-Gomez, E.*
AU  - Girard, G.*
AU  - Machann, J.
AU  - Thiran, J.P.*
AU  - Münte, T.F.*
AU  - Heldmann, M.*
C1  - 70963
C2  - 55840
CY  - 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, Nj Usa
TI  - The interplay between white adipose tissue, adipokines, and structural gray matter changes.
JO  - Hum. Brain Mapp.
VL  - 45
IS  - 9
PB  - Wiley
PY  - 2024
SN  - 1065-9471
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The neural underpinnings of the integration of internal and external cues that reflect nutritional status are poorly understood in humans. The hypothalamus is a key integrative area involved in short- and long-term energy intake regulation. Hence, we examined the effect of hunger state on the hypothalamus network using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In a multicenter study, participants performed a food cue viewing task either fasted or sated on two separate days. We evaluated hypothalamic functional connectivity (FC) using psychophysiological interactions during high versus low caloric food cue viewing in 107 adults (divided into four groups based on age and body mass index [BMI]; age range 24-76 years; BMI range 19.5-41.5 kg/m2 ). In the sated compared to the fasted condition, the hypothalamus showed significantly higher FC with the bilateral caudate, the left insula and parts of the left inferior frontal cortex. Interestingly, we observed a significant interaction between hunger state and BMI group in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Participants with normal weight compared to overweight and obesity showed higher FC between the hypothalamus and DLPFC in the fasted condition. The current study showed that task-based FC of the hypothalamus can be modulated by internal (hunger state) and external cues (i.e., food cues with varying caloric content) with a general enhanced communication in the sated state and obesity-associated differences in hypothalamus to DLPFC communication. This could potentially promote overeating in persons with obesity.
AU  - Kullmann, S.
AU  - Veit, R.
AU  - Crabtree, D.R.*
AU  - Buosi, W.*
AU  - Androutsos, O.*
AU  - Johnstone, A.M.*
AU  - Manios, Y.*
AU  - Preissl, H.
AU  - Smeets, P.A.M.*
C1  - 66178
C2  - 53115
SP  - 418-428
TI  - The effect of hunger state on hypothalamic functional connectivity in response to food cues.
JO  - Hum. Brain Mapp.
VL  - 44
IS  - 2
PY  - 2023
SN  - 1065-9471
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Neurofeedback training has been shown to influence behavior in healthy participants as well as to alleviate clinical symptoms in neurological, psychosomatic, and psychiatric patient populations. However, many real-time fMRI neurofeedback studies report large inter-individual differences in learning success. The factors that cause this vast variability between participants remain unknown and their identification could enhance treatment success. Thus, here we employed a meta-analytic approach including data from 24 different neurofeedback studies with a total of 401 participants, including 140 patients, to determine whether levels of activity in target brain regions during pretraining functional localizer or no-feedback runs (i.e., self-regulation in the absence of neurofeedback) could predict neurofeedback learning success. We observed a slightly positive correlation between pretraining activity levels during a functional localizer run and neurofeedback learning success, but we were not able to identify common brain-based success predictors across our diverse cohort of studies. Therefore, advances need to be made in finding robust models and measures of general neurofeedback learning, and in increasing the current study database to allow for investigating further factors that might influence neurofeedback learning.
AU  - Haugg, A.*
AU  - Sladky, R.*
AU  - Skouras, S.*
AU  - McDonald, A.*
AU  - Craddock, C.*
AU  - Kirschner, M.*
AU  - Herdener, M.*
AU  - Koush, Y.*
AU  - Papoutsi, M.*
AU  - Keynan, J.N.*
AU  - Hendler, T.*
AU  - Cohen Kadosh, K.*
AU  - Zich, C.*
AU  - MacInnes, J.*
AU  - Adcock, A.*
AU  - Dickerson, K.*
AU  - Chen, N.K.*
AU  - Young, K.*
AU  - Bodurka, J.*
AU  - Yao, S.*
AU  - Becker, B.*
AU  - Auer, T.*
AU  - Schweizer, R.*
AU  - Pamplona, G.*
AU  - Emmert, K.*
AU  - Haller, S.*
AU  - van de Ville, D.*
AU  - Blefari, M.L.*
AU  - Kim, D.Y.*
AU  - Lee, J.H.*
AU  - Marins, T.*
AU  - Fukuda, M.*
AU  - Sorger, B.*
AU  - Kamp, T.*
AU  - Liew, S.L.*
AU  - Veit, R.
AU  - Spetter, M.*
AU  - Weiskopf, N.*
AU  - Scharnowski, F.*
C1  - 59834
C2  - 49062
CY  - 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, Nj Usa
SP  - 3839-3854
TI  - Can we predict real-time fMRI neurofeedback learning success from pretraining brain activity?
JO  - Hum. Brain Mapp.
VL  - 41
IS  - 14
PB  - Wiley
PY  - 2020
SN  - 1065-9471
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Eating behavior is crucial in the development of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. To further investigate its regulation, we studied the effects of glucose versus water ingestion on the neural processing of visual high and low caloric food cues in 12 lean and 12 overweight subjects by functional magnetic resonance imaging. We found body weight to substantially impact the brain's response to visual food cues after glucose versus water ingestion. Specifically, there was a significant interaction between body weight, condition (water versus glucose), and caloric content of food cues. Although overweight subjects showed a generalized reduced response to food objects in the fusiform gyrus and precuneus, the lean group showed a differential pattern to high versus low caloric foods depending on glucose versus water ingestion. Furthermore, we observed plasma insulin and glucose associated effects. The hypothalamic response to high caloric food cues negatively correlated with changes in blood glucose 30 min after glucose ingestion, while especially brain regions in the prefrontal cortex showed a significant negative relationship with increases in plasma insulin 120 min after glucose ingestion. We conclude that the postprandial neural processing of food cues is highly influenced by body weight especially in visual areas, potentially altering visual attention to food. Furthermore, our results underline that insulin markedly influences prefrontal activity to high caloric food cues after a meal, indicating that postprandial hormones may be potential players in modulating executive control.
AU  - Heni, M.*
AU  - Kullmann, S.
AU  - Ketterer, C.*
AU  - Guthoff, M.*
AU  - Bayer, M.*
AU  - Staiger, H.
AU  - Machicao, F.*
AU  - Häring, H.-U.
AU  - Preissl, H.
AU  - Veit, R.*
AU  - Fritsche, A.
C1  - 28731
C2  - 33530
CY  - Hoboken
SP  - 918-928
TI  - Differential effect of glucose ingestion on the neural processing of food stimuli in lean and overweight adults.
JO  - Hum. Brain Mapp.
VL  - 35
IS  - 3
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
PY  - 2014
SN  - 1065-9471
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The hypothalamus is of enormous importance for multiple bodily functions such as energy homeostasis. Especially, rodent studies have greatly contributed to our understanding how specific hypothalamic subregions integrate peripheral and central signals into the brain to control food intake. In humans, however, the neural circuitry of the hypothalamus, with its different subregions, has not been delineated. Hence, the aim of this study was to map the hypothalamus network using resting-state functional connectivity (FC) analyses from the medial hypothalamus (MH) and lateral hypothalamus (LH) in healthy normal-weight adults (n = 49). Furthermore, in a separate sample, we examined differences within the LH and MH networks between healthy normal-weight (n = 25) versus overweight/obese adults (n = 23). FC patterns from the LH and MH revealed significant connections to the striatum, thalamus, brainstem, orbitofrontal cortex, middle and posterior cingulum and temporal brain regions. However, our analysis revealed subtler distinctions within hypothalamic subregions. The LH was functionally stronger connected to the dorsal striatum, anterior cingulum, and frontal operculum, while the MH showed stronger functional connections to the nucleus accumbens and medial orbitofrontal cortex. Furthermore, overweight/obese participants revealed heightened FC in the orbitofrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens within the MH network. Our results indicate that the MH and LH network are tapped into different parts of the dopaminergic circuitry of the brain, potentially modulating food reward based on the functional connections to the ventral and dorsal striatum, respectively. In obese adults, FC changes were observed in the MH network.
AU  - Kullmann, S.
AU  - Heni, M.
AU  - Linder, K.*
AU  - Zipfel, S.*
AU  - Häring, H.-U.
AU  - Veit, R.*
AU  - Fritsche, A.
AU  - Preissl, H.
C1  - 31953
C2  - 34896
SP  - 6088-6096
TI  - Resting-state functional connectivity of the human hypothalamus.
JO  - Hum. Brain Mapp.
VL  - 35
IS  - 12
PY  - 2014
SN  - 1065-9471
ER  -