Good taste or gut feeling?: A new method in rats shows oro-sensory stimulation and gastric distention generate distinct and overlapping brain activation patterns
Roelofs, Theresia J M; Luijendijk, Mieneke C M; van der Toorn, Annette; Camps, Guido; Smeets, Paul A M; Dijkhuizen, Rick M; Adan, Roger A H
(2021) International Journal of Eating Disorders, volume 54, issue 7, pp. 1116 - 1126
(Article)
Abstract
Satiation is influenced by a variety of signals including gastric distention and oro-sensory stimulation. Here we developed a high-field (9.4 T) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) protocol to test how oro-sensory stimulation and gastric distention, as induced with a block-design paradigm, affect brain activation under different states of energy balance
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in rats. Repeated tasting of sucrose induced positive and negative fMRI responses in the ventral tegmental area and septum, respectively, and gradual neural activation in the anterior insula and the brain stem nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS), as revealed using a two-level generalized linear model-based analysis. These unique findings align with comparable human experiments, and are now for the first time identified in rats, thereby allowing for comparison between species. Gastric distention induced more extensive brain activation, involving the insular cortex and NTS. Our findings are largely in line with human studies that have shown that the NTS is involved in processing both visceral information and taste, and anterior insula in processing sweet taste oro-sensory signals. Gastric distention and sucrose tasting induced responses in mesolimbic areas, to our knowledge not previously detected in humans, which may reflect the rewarding effects of a full stomach and sweet taste, thereby giving more insight into the processing of sensory signals leading to satiation. The similarities of these data to human neuroimaging data demonstrate the translational value of the approach and offer a new avenue to deepen our understanding of the process of satiation in healthy people and those with eating disorders.
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Keywords: functional magnetic resonance imaging, functional neuroimaging, rats, satiation, stomach, taste, Psychiatry and Mental health, Journal Article
ISSN: 0276-3478
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Note: Funding Information: EU FP7, Grant/Award Number: Nudge IT grant number 607310 Funding information Funding Information: This work was supported by the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP/2007‐2013) (grant number 607310 [Nudge‐it]). The funding source had no involvement in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data, nor in the writing or submission of this article. We especially thank Gerard van Vliet for technical assistance and hardware development, Wim Otte for assistance and advice on data analyses, Michel Sinke for assistance on R scripting, Milou Straathof, Jeroen Verharen, Julia Boonzaier, and Geralda van Tilborg for fruitful discussions on the experimental procedure and setup, troubleshooting, and analyses of the data. Funding Information: This work was supported by the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP/2007-2013) (grant number 607310 [Nudge-it]). The funding source had no involvement in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data, nor in the writing or submission of this article. We especially thank Gerard van Vliet for technical assistance and hardware development, Wim Otte for assistance and advice on data analyses, Michel Sinke for assistance on R scripting, Milou Straathof, Jeroen Verharen, Julia Boonzaier, and Geralda van Tilborg for fruitful discussions on the experimental procedure and setup, troubleshooting, and analyses of the data. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Authors. International Journal of Eating Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
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