Reward-based physical exercise and nutritional supplementation in seniors – What changes on brain level?

The hedonic control of eating is mediated by the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway, the neural reward system. Non-invasive, whole brain imaging can measure brain activity of this system online, which is fed back in real-time to subjects for the purpose of localized self-regulation.

We aim to manipulate the rewarding value of food aided by neurofeedback: We will train healthy, young subjects to up- and down-regulate the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway when presented with food stimuli, guided by neurofeedback. Effectiveness of the manipulation is assessed in fMRI and behavioral measures. After a successful pilot study, a first experiment attempting to train overweight subjects to down-regulate the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway during the presentation of certain food types could be attempted.

A non-invasive, non-pharmacological modulation of neural food reward has the potential of providing an effective non-surgical treatment option for obesity, which is a raging epidemic with a high health and financial burden for individuals and societies.