# The Relation of Genetic Factors, Food Cues, and Self-Regulation with Excess Consumption and Adiposity in Children

> **NIH NIH R01** · DARTMOUTH COLLEGE · 2020 · $582,339

## Abstract

Project Summary
Childhood obesity is a critical public health problem that affects approximately 12.5 million children and teens
in the United States. In our current obesogenic environment, children frequently have access to highly
palatable foods such as packaged foods containing high levels of sugar, salt and fat. Importantly, most children
will continue to consume highly palatable foods, even after they have eaten to satiety. This excess
consumption, termed eating in the absence of hunger (EAH), is associated with child weight gain. The
overarching hypothesis of the present study is that some children are genetically predisposed to EAH in
response to environmental food cues, and further that self-regulatory capacity can protect children from this
reward-driven overeating. The proposed aims are a major expansion of our preliminary study
(1R21HD076097) in 9-10 year olds (n=172) that provides initial evidence that obesity risk alleles in the fat
mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene relate to greater EAH and brain reward-region activity in response to
food cues. Our initial exploratory award led to intriguing findings that raise a number of new exciting questions
and research directions. In our current expanded study, we will directly assess whether food-cue-related neural
activity relates to cued EAH and adiposity gain—an outcome with critical public health significance. We will
also incorporate a robust measure of self-regulatory capacity to study how this modifiable trait influences the
association between neural reward activity with EAH and subsequent adiposity gain. Our expanded research
will also advance our understanding of the biological mechanisms by which adiposity is affected by other
known genetic obesity risk factors like melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) gene. This expanded study uses a
comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to increase our understanding of how genetic factors interact with
environmental food cues to affect obesogenic eating behaviors in children. Most children have a very high daily
exposure to external food cues. In addition to smelling and seeing actual food throughout the day, many
children also experience numerous food cues in the form of TV and Internet food advertisements (ads) that can
prompt cravings and EAH. Indeed, food manufacturers spend approximately 1.8 billion dollars a year
marketing highly palatable foods to children under 12 years old through methods such as TV ads, Internet
banner and pop-up ads, and Internet advergames. Thus, cued EAH could be an important driver of the child
obesity epidemic. The study findings will have important implications for individualized child obesity
intervention and prevention programs, and will also impact the public policy discourse on TV and Internet
advertising of unhealthy foods to children. In a country where over one third of children are overweight or
obese, it is essential to understand and systematically change environmental factors that lead to excess
cons...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9922341
- **Project number:** 5R01HD092604-03
- **Recipient organization:** DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
- **Principal Investigator:** Diane Ihn Ae Gilbert-Diamond
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $582,339
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-07-01 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9922341

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9922341, The Relation of Genetic Factors, Food Cues, and Self-Regulation with Excess Consumption and Adiposity in Children (5R01HD092604-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9922341. Licensed CC0.

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