# Characterizing resilience to food-cue induced overeating in children

> **NIH NIH R01** · PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE · 2021 · $603,724

## Abstract

Project Summary: While strong empirical evidence shows that exposure to food advertisements increases
short-term food intake and contributes to the development of obesity, not all children are susceptible to this
effect. Identifying the characteristics that protect some children from overeating in response to food advertising
is a public health priority that may highlight novel targets for childhood obesity prevention. We propose to use
state-of-the art, data driven techniques to identify neural, cognitive and behavioral phenotypes that are
associated with resiliency to food-cue induced overeating and determine whether these phenotypes protect
children from weight gain during the critical pre-adolescent period. The driving premise of this proposal is that
children who are resistant to food-cue induced overeating will exhibit a distinct cluster of neural, behavioral,
and cognitive traits which protect them from weight gain in an obesogenic environment. Our preliminary studies
suggest that greater neural activation in prefrontal cortical regions implicated in cognitive control, increased
executive functioning, and lower food advertising exposure may be some of the characteristics that confer
resiliency to overeating in response to food advertising cues. To confirm our preliminary findings, we plan to
enroll 140, 7-8 year-old children with healthy weight who vary by risk for obesity (70 low-risk/both parents with
healthy weight; 70 high-risk/both parents with obesity) for a 1-year prospective study. In aim one, we will
compare the effect of exposing children to commercials (i.e., food, toy, and non-rewarding advertisements) on
subsequent neural activation and network connectivity characteristics in response to viewing high-energy food
cues. We hypothesize that exposure to food commercials (vs. toy and non-food) will reduce prefrontal cortex
activation, but that there will be substantial variability in this response across children. In aim two, we will
determine how food commercials affect children’s subsequent food intake at both homeostatic (i.e., ad libitum
test-meals) and non-homeostatic (i.e., eating palatable snacks when not hungry) eating events and relate
these responses to underlying neural circuitry. In aim three, we will test the extent to which children’s executive
function and prior food advertising experience moderate the relationship between food commercial exposure
and subsequent neural and behavioral outcomes. In the final aim, we will use sophisticated data-driven
techniques (i.e., machine learning) to identify neural, behavioral, and cognitive traits that moderate the effect of
familial risk status on weight-gain. We expect the proposed studies to inform the science of obesity prevention
by identifying specific modifiable phenotypes that protect high-risk children from excess weight gain during the
pre-adolescent period. The overall impact of these studies will be to identify novel neural and behavioral
characteristics of resilienc...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10049781
- **Project number:** 1R01DK126050-01
- **Recipient organization:** PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE
- **Principal Investigator:** KATHLEEN L KELLER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $603,724
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-05-01 → 2025-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10049781

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10049781, Characterizing resilience to food-cue induced overeating in children (1R01DK126050-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10049781. Licensed CC0.

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