title: In a sweet mood? Effects of experimental modulation of blood glucose levels on mood-induction during fMRI.
abstract: Glucose is the primary source of energy for the human brain. Previous literature has shown that varying blood glucose levels may have a strong impact on behaviour, subjective mood, and the intensity of the BOLD signal measured in fMRI. Therefore, blood glucose levels varying even within the normal range may interact with cognitive and emotional processing as well as BOLD signal. Here, in a placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover study on 20 healthy women, we show that overnight fasting, compared to an elevated glucose condition, influences brain activation and the affective state during mood induction. Results indicate that our brain may compensate for low glucose levels during fasting by stronger recruitment of the brain areas relevant to the task at hand. Additionally, we systematically tested the effect of prior cognitive effort on behavioural and neural patterns and found that elevated activation is only associated with maintained performance as long as no prior cognitively challenging task is administered. Prior cognitive effort leads to deteriorated performance and a further increase in emotion-associated brain activation in the pregenual anterior and posterior cingulate, the superior frontal gyrus, and the pre-SMA. These results are in line with the strength model of self-regulation. Our results corroborate the strength model of self-regulation and extend it to affect regulation processes. Additionally, our observations suggest that experimentally controlling for fasting state or glucose levels may be beneficial, especially when studying processes that involve self-regulation.
authors: Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-6), Jülich Research Centre, Jülich, Germany; JARA Brain - Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich-Aachen, Germany. Electronic address: nkohn@ukaachen.de.
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Kohn
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany; Department of Biology, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Toygar
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany; JARA Brain - Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich-Aachen, Germany.
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Weidenfeld
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany; JARA Brain - Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich-Aachen, Germany.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Berthold-Losleben
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany; JARA Brain - Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich-Aachen, Germany.
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Chechko
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany; JARA Brain - Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich-Aachen, Germany.
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Orfanos
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany; JARA Brain - Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich-Aachen, Germany.
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Vocke
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany; JARA Brain - Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich-Aachen, Germany.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Durst
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Düsseldorf, Bergische Landstrasse 2, 40629 Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors: Z G
authors: ZG
authors: Laoutidis
authors: Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
authors: W
authors: W
authors: Karges
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany; JARA Brain - Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich-Aachen, Germany.
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Schneider
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany; JARA Brain - Translational Brain Medicine, Jülich-Aachen, Germany.
authors: U
authors: U
authors: Habel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000187:drug effects*; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005149:Facial Expression; D005215:Fasting / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D011999:Recruitment, Neurophysiological; D000068356:Self-Control; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose
keywords: Blood glucose; ICA; Mood induction; Strength model; default mode; fMRI