Adolescent brain activation: dependence on sex, dietary satiation, and restraint

Abstract

The study aimed to explore how both sex and dietary restraint impacts brain activation in response to visual food stimuli in young adolescents (12-13 years) under fed and fasted conditions. Food and non-food images were viewed by 15 boys and 14 girls, while functional magnetic resonance images were acquired. The adolescents were either fasted or in a satiated (fed) state following a randomized crossover study design. When satiation state was not considered, girls showed significantly greater brain activity than boys in regions associated with executive function and decision making, working memory, and self-awareness. In contrast, when either fasted or fed states were considered separately, boys showed significantly increased brain activity in regions linked to executive function, self-awareness, and decision making than the girls. When fasted, compared to unrestrained eaters, restrained individuals showed heightened activation in regions connected to executive function and decision making, with areas associated with self-assessment showing increased activity for unrestrained eaters relative to restrained under fed conditions. These findings highlight important differences in adolescent brain activity and support further investigations to gain greater insight into how these differences might evolve with age.