Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Enhanced food-related responses in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex in orexin-deficient patients

Ruth Janke van Holst, Lieneke K. Janssen, Petra van Mierlo, Gert Jan Lammers, Roshan Cools, Sebastiaan Overeem, Esther Aarts
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/191544
Ruth Janke van Holst
1Dept. of Neurology, Radboud university medical center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
2Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
8Dept. of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Lieneke K. Janssen
2Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Petra van Mierlo
3Sleep Medicine Center Kempenhaeghe, Heeze, the Netherlands
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Gert Jan Lammers
4Sleep-Wake Center SEIN, Heemstede, the Netherlands
5Dept. of Neurology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Roshan Cools
2Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
6Dept. of Psychiatry, Radboud university medical center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Sebastiaan Overeem
1Dept. of Neurology, Radboud university medical center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
3Sleep Medicine Center Kempenhaeghe, Heeze, the Netherlands
7Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Esther Aarts
2Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Background Narcolepsy Type 1 is a chronic sleep disorder caused by a deficiency of orexin (hypocretin). In addition to sleep regulation, orexin is important for motivated control processes. Weight gain and obesity are common in narcolepsy. However, the neurocognitive processes associated with food-related control and overeating in orexin-deficient patients are unknown. We explored the neural correlates of general and food-related attentional control in narcolepsy patients (n=23) and healthy BMI-matched controls (n=20). In secondary analyses, we included patients with idiopathic hypersomnia (n=15) to assess sleepiness-related influences.

Methods We measured attentional bias to food words with a Food Stroop task and general executive control with a Classic Stroop task during fMRI. Moreover, with correlational analyses, we assessed the relative contribution of the neural findings on the Food Stroop and Classic Stroop tasks to spontaneous snack intake.

Results Relative to healthy controls, narcolepsy patients showed enhanced ventral medial prefrontal cortex responses and connectivity with motor cortex during the Food Stroop task, but attenuated dorsal medial prefrontal cortex responses during the Classic Stroop task. The ventral medial prefrontal cortex responses on the Food Stroop task, not the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex responses on the Classic Stroop task, were a significant predictor of snack intake. Comparing the narcolepsy patients with idiopathic hypersomnia patients revealed similar results.

Conclusions These findings demonstrate that orexin deficiency is associated with decreased dorsal medial prefrontal cortex responses during general executive control and enhanced ventral medial prefrontal cortex responses during food-driven attention, with the latter predicting increases in food intake.

Statement of Significance Patients with orexin (hypocretin) deficient narcolepsy type-1 often suffer from obesity as well as increased food craving, in addition to the sleep symptoms. However, whether and how orexin deficiency relates to neural differences in food-directed attention is unclear. We employed a Food Stroop task during fMRI and provide experimental evidence that the ventral medial prefrontal cortex responds more strongly to food words in narcolepsy patients than in controls. The hypothesis that this mechanism contributes to weight problems in narcolepsy is strengthened by the observation that ventral medial prefrontal cortex responses during the Food Stroop task were predictive of snack intake. These mechanistic data might thus advance the development of treatment targets for obesity in narcolepsy.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted December 11, 2017.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Enhanced food-related responses in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex in orexin-deficient patients
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Enhanced food-related responses in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex in orexin-deficient patients
Ruth Janke van Holst, Lieneke K. Janssen, Petra van Mierlo, Gert Jan Lammers, Roshan Cools, Sebastiaan Overeem, Esther Aarts
bioRxiv 191544; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/191544
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Enhanced food-related responses in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex in orexin-deficient patients
Ruth Janke van Holst, Lieneke K. Janssen, Petra van Mierlo, Gert Jan Lammers, Roshan Cools, Sebastiaan Overeem, Esther Aarts
bioRxiv 191544; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/191544

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4246)
  • Biochemistry (9175)
  • Bioengineering (6807)
  • Bioinformatics (24066)
  • Biophysics (12160)
  • Cancer Biology (9567)
  • Cell Biology (13847)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7661)
  • Ecology (11739)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15547)
  • Genetics (10673)
  • Genomics (14365)
  • Immunology (9515)
  • Microbiology (22916)
  • Molecular Biology (9135)
  • Neuroscience (49170)
  • Paleontology (358)
  • Pathology (1487)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2584)
  • Physiology (3851)
  • Plant Biology (8351)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1473)
  • Synthetic Biology (2301)
  • Systems Biology (6207)
  • Zoology (1304)