The effect of a liquid meal on cerebral blood flow in healthy lean individuals measured with (1Tesla) fMRI: A pilot study.

Brain areas that are involved in eating behavior are the prefrontal cortex, the
hypothalamus, the thalamus, limbic/paralimbic areas, the basal ganglia, the
temporal cortex and the cerebellum. Functional neuroimaging studies show that
there are specific regions in the brain that respond to images of food, caloric
content and food intake. Also, blood flow in these areas is dependent on the
fed or fasted state of the body. The activation of these regions differs
between obese and lean men and women. Structural MRI studies also show
anatomical differences between obese and healthy weight (HW) groups.
To get more insight in these differences, we are currently studying brain
imaging between different groups of obese subjects (MEC 08/161). To compare
these groups to reference values for cerebral blood flow measured with fMRI
before and after a liquid meal in healthy lean volunteers, we propose to
conduct the current study with two goals: to create reference values of
cerebral blood flow measured with a 1 Tesla open MRI scanner after a liquid
meal and to study whether this response in cerebral blood flow differs between
lean males and females.

To study cerebral blood flow with 1Tesla MRI before and after ingestion of a
liquid meal.

After screening volunteers undergo a REE and a MRI after an overnight fast.
Before the MRI blood will be drawn to determine wheter they are in the fasting
state. During the MRI they will be given a liquid meal. The scan lasts for 80
minutes.

Subjects will visit the research unit twice. During the first visit subjects
will be screened to exclude diabetes mellitus using an oral glucose tolerance
test and additional blood samples will be drawn from an indwelling catheter to
screen for exclusion criteria. The fMRI will last approximately 1,5 hours.
Subjects will be studied on both occasions after an overnight fast.