SLEEP 2011 Abstract Supplement

A. Basic Science VI. Chronobiology
0161
DAYTIME SLEEPINESS IS ASSOCIATED WITH ALTERED
BRAIN ACTIVATION DURING VISUAL PERCEPTION OF
HIGH-CALORIE FOODS: AN fMRI STUDY
Weiner MR, Schwab ZJ, Killgore WD
Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, USA
Introduction: With the average sleep duration in our population declining
and the obesity epidemic on the rise, it is of particular importance to
understand the relationship between sleep-related factors, brain responses
to food, and eating behavior. Prior evidence suggests that healthy
adults activate inhibitory regions of the prefrontal cortex in response to
high-calorie food images. However, insufficient sleep is often associated
with reduced metabolic activity within these same prefrontal regions.
We hypothesized that greater daytime sleepiness would correlate with
reduced prefrontal responses during passive viewing of appetizing highcalorie
food images.
Methods: Twelve healthy adults (6 men) aged 19 to 45 underwent
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while viewing pictures
of high-calorie foods, low-calorie foods, and control images of plants
and rocks. Subjects completed the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) for
daytime sleepiness regarding their likeliness to doze during various activities
(i.e reading, watching television, resting, etc). In SPM5, contrast
images comparing brain activation derived from the high- versus lowcalorie
conditions were correlated voxel-wise with scores from the ESS
sleepiness in a second-level regression model (p