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Completed No phase listed Observational Accepts healthy volunteers

Decision-Making and the Relationship to Food Intake in Kids

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02855398

Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02855398. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.

ClinicalTrials.gov public records Last synced Sep 9, 2026, 1:49 AM EDT

Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.

Official title

Understanding Decision-Making and the Relationship to Food Intake in Children 7 to 11 Years Old

Brief summary

Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.

The purpose of this 18-month project is to investigate how decision-making influences food choice and consumption in children ages 7 to 11 years old. Although several studies suggest that the ability to make good decisions relates to eating behaviors, no studies have looked at how food reward influences the decision-making process to impact actual food intake. This proposal will answer these questions and bridge this gap in knowledge, which could lead to the development of more effective interventions for childhood obesity. To accomplish this, the investigators have assembled a diverse team with expertise in food intake, nutrition, and decision sciences. First, the investigators will establish if there are differences in decision-making between children varying in weight status. Second, the investigators will determine if performance on behavioral decision-making tasks relates to food consumption in the laboratory. Third, the investigators will examine response functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response to various rewards (i.e. food and money) and determine if this is influenced by child weight status. Fourth, the investigators will examine differences in fMRI BOLD at rest in decision-making regions are correlated with food intake and weight status. Eighty-two children will participate in our study. The long-term goal of this project is to investigate if there are differences in brain regions corresponding to these behaviors in overweight children and if these differences relate to eating behaviors in this population. Children will undergo fMRI while playing a reward task as well as consume meals in our laboratory. Decision-making will also be assessed by having children complete various behavioral measurements of reward and inhibitory control.

Study identification

NCT ID
NCT02855398
Recruitment status
Completed
Study type
Observational
Phase
Not listed
Lead sponsor
Penn State University
Other
Enrollment
142 participants

Conditions and interventions

Interventions

Not listed

Eligibility (public fields only)

Age range
7 Years to 11 Years
Sex
All
Healthy volunteers
Accepts healthy volunteers

This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.

Study timeline

Start date
Mar 31, 2015
Primary completion
Sep 30, 2016
Completion
Nov 30, 2017
Last update posted
Jan 10, 2021

2015 – 2017

United States locations

U.S. sites
1
U.S. states
1
U.S. cities
1
Facility City State ZIP Site status
The Pennsylvania State University University Park Pennsylvania 16802

Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.

About this trial record page

What this page shows
Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02855398, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
What this page does not do
No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
Where the data comes from
Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
Last refresh
Last update posted Jan 10, 2021 · Synced Sep 9, 2026

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Open the official record

The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT02855398 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.

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