Reward-related neural correlates in adolescents with excess body weight

The functional and connectivity reward processing in adults with excessive body weight is well documented, though is relatively less researched during adolescence. Given that reward and inhibition may be highly malleable during adolescence, it is unknown how impulsive behaviors, potentially stemming from impaired inhibitory control and heightened sensitivity to rewarding cues, relate to increases in body weight in adolescents. Adolescents (N = 76; mean age = 14.10 years, SD = 1.92) with varied body mass index (BMI) performed a child-friendly monetary incentive delay task during functional magnetic resonance imaging, to study reward processing during the anticipation of rewards (cue) and reactions to feedback about rewards (feedback). Our results show that adolescents with greater BMI z-score show neural activation and ventral striatum connectivity alterations in networks implicated in reward, salience detection, and inhibitory control. These bottom-up reward and top-down inhibitory control networks, as well as interactions between these networks were prevalent during the anticipation period (when the cue is presented) as well as when receiving feedback about whether one has received a reward. Specifically, our results were mainly driven by failure to receive a reward in the feedback period, and the anticipation of a potential reward in the anticipation period. Overall, we provide evidence for heightened reward salience as well as inhibitory control deficits that, in combination, may contribute to the impulsive behaviors that lead to higher BMI in adolescents.