participants with obesity planning to undergo bariatric surgery

participants with obesity planning to controlled conservative behavioral weight loss program

bariatric surgery

Change in responsivity of the hypothalamus (extracted as percent signal change) as the core region of homeostatic control will be assessed after an intravenous glucose infusion (by calculating the area under the curve of hypothalamic responsivity) before and after bariatric surgery or dietary intervention.

Neuronal gustatory processing of food stimuli will be assessed (ingestion of sweet liquids using a gustometer) using a general linear model (comparing brain activation during ingestion of sweet liquids with brain activation during the ingestion of water) and within as well as between groups analyses. Changes in neural gustatory processing of food stimuli will be assessed before and after bariatric surgery or dietary intervention.

Blood is collected to measure the concentration of peripheral ghrelin as an indicator of hormonal satiety signaling. Blood samples are collected at the beginning and end of each experimental session to assess the influence of intravenuous infusion of glucose on ghrelin signaling. Blood samples will be analysed using using commercially available kits (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay).

Change in weight following bariatric surgery or dietary intervention