# Human Newborn Energy Homeostasis Brain Networks And Infant Adiposity

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE · 2020 · $158,513

## Abstract

This revised application, submitted in response to NIH PA-18-741 “Secondary Analyses in Obesity, 
Diabetes, and Digestive and Kidney Diseases,” relates to the public health problem of childhood 
obesity, with a specific focus on the characterization, determinants and role of energy balance 
homeostasis-related brain circuitry in the human newborn. The proposal describes a comprehensive 
plan designed to advance neonatal MRI analytical methods, developmental systems neuroscience, and 
fetal programming of health and disease risk. The critical importance of the 
hypothalamic-limbic-cortical brain circuitry that regulates energy homeostasis is well 
established, and MRI-based measures of energy homeostasis-related brain circuits have been 
associated with obesity outcomes. However, it is unclear whether the observed differences in these 
brain regions and circuitry in obese relative to normal-weight individuals are a cause, 
consequence, or both, of the obese state. Moreover, relatively little is known about the 
developmental ontogeny of these brain regions and circuitry, particularly during the fetal period, 
and their prospective role in shaping propensity for childhood obesity. This project addresses 
this fundamental knowledge gap. We will develop novel measures and conduct analyses using newborn 
brain imaging and other data elements from 4 inter-linked NIH-funded projects on prenatal stress 
and fetal programming of brain development and infant body composition (R01 HD-060628; R01 
MH-091351; R01 HD-065825; UG3 OD-023349). The importance of selecting the newborn brain as the 
starting time point derives from the logic that brain circuitry at this time could not yet have 
been influenced by postnatal factors such as diet/feeding, thereby enabling the study to 
disentangle the temporality of effects. In a recent position paper on the pathogenesis of obesity, 
the U.S. Endocrine Society emphasized the need to conceptualize obesity as a disorder of the 
energy homeostasis system and elucidate its underlying mechanisms and developmental influences. 
Towards this objective, and using a population of ~100 mother-infant dyads followed from early 
gestation through birth till 5 yrs age, we will integrate research aims that leverage the resources 
of these projects to advance our understanding of the origins of childhood obesity. Aim 1. 
Develop measures of energy homeostasis brain circuitry using anatomical, diffusion and functional 
MRI. Because such measures have not yet been established in newborn homeostasis circuitry, 
this aim will fulfill an important need in terms of not only scientific knowledge but also 
technical capability. Aim 2. Address the physiological relevance and clinical significance of these 
novel MRI-based newborn brain measures by testing the hypothesis that measures of the human 
newborn’s energy homeostasis brain circuitry are prospectively associated with infant adiposity 
and subsequent childhood obesity risk. Aim 3. Identi...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9959421
- **Project number:** 5R21DK118578-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE
- **Principal Investigator:** PAUL M THOMPSON
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $158,513
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-07-01 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9959421

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9959421, Human Newborn Energy Homeostasis Brain Networks And Infant Adiposity (5R21DK118578-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-01 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9959421. Licensed CC0.

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