Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9575-4849

Date of Award

Fall 11-2023

Document Type

Thesis (Ph.D.)

Department or Program

Quantitative Biomedical Sciences

First Advisor

Diane Gilbert-Diamond

Abstract

The complex and multifactorial etiology of obesity involves the interaction of numerous risk factors. Assessing the gene-environment interaction of pediatric obesity can provide valuable insights for the characterization of key factors contributing to obesity and identification of potential points of intervention. The data used in this thesis comes from a single sample of young children recruited from the communities surrounding Dartmouth College. The primary objective of this thesis is to assess the impacts of complicated gene-environment interaction on pediatric obesity. First, we assessed the dynamic and static advertising of food cues to examine they lead to differential neural reward responsivity. Second, we examined genetic predisposition to food-cue-related neural reward reactivity in children. Third, we examined whether food advertisements modify the relationship between genetic obesity risk factors and eating in the absence of hunger. The results of this thesis may aid in identifying children at risk for obesity prior to the onset of excess weight gain and potentially inform future prevention and intervention strategies.

Original Citation

Yeum D, Jimenez CA, Emond JA, Meyer ML, Lansigan RK, Carlson DD, Ballarino GA, Gilbert-Diamond D and Masterson TD (2023) Differential neural reward reactivity in response to food advertising medium in children. Front. Neurosci. 17:1052384. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1052384

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