Clinical trial NCT03364413: Brain's Response to Chocolate
Official title: Behavioral Assessment of the Brain Response to Bioactive Food Components Using Electroretinography (Brain's Response to Chocolate)
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Overweight
Obesity
Lead sponsor: USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center
Sponsor class: FED
Collaborators: name: Drexel University
First posted: 2017-12-06
Enrollment: 20
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 50
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: OTHER
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Community sample

Brief summary: The purpose of this study is to test how the brain responds when individuals eat enjoyable foods such as chocolate. Eating certain foods can make one want to keep eating even when feeling full, caused by dopamine in the brain. The researchers believe this dopamine response can be measured by looking at the individual's eye.

Detailed description: With obesity at an all-time high, understanding eating behavior beyond physical need is a priority. Food reinforcement is driven by central dopamine activity. However, objective measurement of brain dopamine-related behavioral events is hindered by the lack of non-invasive, accessible techniques that are amenable to testing in a "naturalistic" environment. The goal of this project is to develop a non-invasive, accessible methodology to measure dopaminergic responses to food in a natural setting. This research will use a novel, hand-held electroretinograph (ERG) that does not require eye dilation and uses a skin electrode to measure retinal dopamine activity. Previous work establishes that retinal dopamine activity can be used as a proxy for central dopamine function. The ability to assess both subjective behavioral variables and central dopaminergic responses simultaneously will provide an ideal approach for innovative studies of the control of eating behavior.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* body mass index 20-30 kg/m2
* free of any major illness or disease

Exclusion Criteria:

* food allergies
* participation in a weight loss diet or exercise program
* pregnancy
* lactation
* metabolic illness or disease (diabetes, renal failure, thyroid illness, hypertension)
* eye illness or disease (narrow angle glaucoma, macular degeneration, retinal detachment, cataracts)
* psychiatric, neurological or eating disorders (schizophrenia, depression, Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's Disease, cerebral palsy, stroke, epilepsy, anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa)
* take prescription medications except for oral contraceptives or antihyperlipidemia agents

Primary outcomes:
measure: Retinal dopamine response to oral stimuli
timeFrame: 30 minutes
measure: Psychoactive Effects Questionnaire in response to oral stimuli
timeFrame: 30 minutes
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Scores on the Binge Eating Scale will correlate with the retinal dopamine and Psychoactive Effect Questionnaire responses
timeFrame: 30 minutes
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Grand Forks
country: United States
facility: USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center
state: North Dakota
Study officials:
affiliation: USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center
name: Shanon Casperson, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Casperson SL, Lanza L, Albajri E, Nasser JA. Increasing Chocolate's Sugar Content Enhances Its Psychoactive Effects and Intake. Nutrients. 2019 Mar 12;11(3):596. doi: 10.3390/nu11030596.