NCT02148770

The Effect of Neurofeedback on Eating Behaviour

Modulating Functional Connectivity Between Eating-related Brain Areas by Neurofeedback

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 50 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University Hospital Tuebingen · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Neuroimaging is becoming increasingly common to investigate the neural networks underlying eating behaviour and food preference in normal-weight and obese humans. It has been observed that obese in comparison to lean individuals display altered activation patterns in networks of brain areas involved in reward, emotion and cognitive control. Interestingly, obese individuals who are capable of losing weight appear to have a stronger connectivity between areas related to food value and to the control of eating behaviour. The same areas are also associated with healthy food choices. It has been suggested that activation in the prefrontal control areas indirectly modulate valuation-related activity. Based on this, brain-related intervention strategies to support weight loss and long-lasting weight maintenance are of particular interest. Hence, we first want to examine the effect on eating behaviour of neurofeedback training-induced up-regulation of functional connectivity between reward- and impulse-related brain areas as a pilot, and second we want to examine up-regulation of the activity of prefrontal control brain areas.

Detailed description

Primary objective: We want to investigate whether the training-induced up-regulation of the dorsal prefrontal cortex inhibits eating behaviour. Study design: A parallel design. Half of the participants will learn to up-regulate activity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), while the other participants will participate in sham-training sessions. Adherence to experimental conditions will be assigned randomly, based on the participants' enrolment in the study, balanced by gender and binge eating classification. Study population: 50 overweight and obese (BMI 25-40 kg/m2), but otherwise healthy individuals, 18-65 years old. Intervention: All participants will participate in a screening day, followed by one neurofeedback session day and a follow-up day. During the neurofeedback session, participants will undergo a 45 min real-time-fMRI-brain-computer-interface scan in order to learn to up-regulate dlPFC activation. Main study parameters/endpoints: 1. The ability to up-regulate dlPFC activity. 2. Respective effects on eating behaviour. Nature and extent of the burden and risks associated with participation: Participants will be scanned once (fMRI). Functional MRI is a safe and non-invasive technique.

Conditions

• Obesity
• Eating Behaviour

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Neurofeedback	Networks involved in eating behaviour can be modified by neurofeedback training. We will perform a neurofeedback task using the technology of fMRI-based Brain Computer Interface (BCI). BCI approaches based on real-time fMRI (rtfMRI) allow voluntary regulation of brain regions. For the rtfMRI, a well-established setup will be used which translates the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal of a specific brain region of interest into a visual signal (e.g. moving bar) in real time using brain voyager® and matlab. The study will include 1 training-sessions In the up-regulation condition subjects will learn to up regulate their dlPFC. In the sham-condition subjects are get the same instructions, however they will receive sham feedback.

Timeline

• Start date: 2014-11-01
• Primary completion: 2017-05-01
• Completion: 2017-05-01
• First posted: 2014-05-28
• Last updated: 2016-05-30

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Germany