Craving Control: Rewiring the Reward Circuitry of the Human Brain in the Modern Food Environment
Description: This AHA postdoctoral fellowship will propel the Principal Investigator (PI) towards an independent career studying the effect of dietary exposures on mechanisms underlying human health and disease. Under supervision of a renowned mentoring team, the PI will conduct a pilot study on brain reward circuity and ingestive behavior at the intersection of the modern food environment and obesity pharmacology. The modern food environment has been suggested to alter brain reward signaling, providing a neural mechanism for shifted dietary preference, subsequent excess energy intake, and resulting obesity and associated cardiometabolic diseases. This in turn is linked to altered brain reward signaling. Of interest in this regard are glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) that reduce the drive to eat without any change to the food environment. It’s hypothesized that GLP-1RAs rescue reward signaling, holding potential to disrupt the vicious cycle of overeating in the context of the modern food environment. Using a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover pilot trial design, N=16 adults with overweight or obesity will be randomized to a single subcutaneous injection of GLP-1RA or placebo to compare differences in brain activity assessed via fMRI in response to nutrient stimuli, ad libitum food intake, dietary choice, food preference, taste perception, and real-world ingestive behavior, including diet quantity and quality. This study will elucidate the neural basis of GLP-1RA’s therapeutic effect, thereby moving toward understanding how the modern food environment contributes to obesity rates and developing targeted interventions that could reshape dietary preferences and improve cardiometabolic outcomes in populations at risk for obesity-related diseases. The proposed work will provide invaluable training for the PI to develop skills in the conduct of clinical trials with a specific focus on hands-on skill development in the assessment of brain metabolism and ingestive behavior, as well as academic development via internal and external collaborations and conference attendance. Collectively, the proposed work will facilitate the PI’s transition to research independence in a field of research directly aligned with the mission of the AHA to be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives.
Funder: American Heart Association
Amount: $153,700
Funding type: fellowship
Funder scheme: Postdoctoral Fellowship
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2026-12-31
Investigators: Kaja Falkenhain, Kaja Falkenhain
Institution: Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University Agricultural and Mechanical College represented by Pennington Biomedical Research Center
Funded outputs count: 11
Funder award ID: 25POST1365227
OpenAlex ID: G1957869420