title: Impulse control in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex counteracts post-diet weight regain in obesity.
abstract: A variety of studies suggest that efficient treatments to induce short-term dietary success in obesity exist. However, sustained maintenance of reduced weight is rare as a large proportion of patients start to regain weight when treatment is discontinued. Thus, from a clinical perspective, it would be desirable to identify factors that counteract post-diet weight regain across longer time-scales. To address this question, we extended our previous work on neural impulse control mechanisms of short-term dietary success in obesity and now investigated the mechanisms counteracting long-term weight regain after a diet. Specifically, we measured neural impulse control during a delay discounting task with fMRI at two time points, i.e. the beginning ('T0') and the end ('T12') of a one-year follow-up interval after a 12-week diet. Then, we tested whether activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) at T0 and whether activity changes across the follow-up period (T0-T12) are linked to success in weight maintenance. The analyses conducted show that control-related DLPFC activity at T0 was coupled to the degree of success in weight maintenance. Consistently, also behavioral measures of control were linked to the degree of success in maintenance. A direct comparison of neural and behavioral control parameters for prognostic weight change modeling revealed that neural signals were more informative. Taken together, neural impulse control in the DLPFC measured with fMRI directly after a diet predicts real-world diet success in obese patients across extended time periods.
authors.affiliation: Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany; Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany; Cluster of Excellence NeuroCure, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: martin.weygandt@bccn-berlin.de.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weygandt
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany; Experimental and Clinical Research Center, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Knut
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mai
authors.affiliation: Center for Internal Medicine and Dermatology, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dommes
authors.affiliation: Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany; Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany; Cluster of Excellence NeuroCure, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ritter
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany; Charité Center for Cardiovascular Research, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Verena
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Leupelt
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany; Experimental and Clinical Research Center, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany; Charité Center for Cardiovascular Research, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Spranger
authors.affiliation: Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany; Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany; Cluster of Excellence NeuroCure, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: John-Dylan
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Haynes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D065786:Delay Discounting / Q000502:physiology*; D004038:Diet, Reducing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000178:diet therapy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015430:Weight Gain
keywords: DLPFC; Impulse-control; Impulsivity; Obesity; Weight maintenance; fMRI