Obesity is a major risk factor for a number of clinical manifestations, including diabetes, fatty liver disease, cardiovascular diseases, airway disease, degenerative disorders including dementia, as well as certain cancers. Furthermore, it is well recognized that obese patients respond by varying degrees to pharmacologic and other weight loss interventions.

Obesity research in ATIA

To achieve this individual approach, we need new diagnostic tools to subtype obese individuals at a more detailed level than currently done by health care professionals. At the Alan Turing Institute Almere, our objective is to develop diagnostic tools for subtyping obese individuals by producing and combining fundamental discoveries in the field of biomedical-, neuropsychological obesity research with individual patient data using artificial intelligence technologies in order to pinpoint the most effective “personalized” therapy.

In our research, we depart form the differences individuals show on their general motivational and emotional behavior and attitudes. For example, one’s motivation to eat, food choice, appetite, eating habits, amount and time eaten and alike are all influenced by motivational and emotional states rooted in different personality traits and dimensions. However, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms that determine and regulate one’s behavior and motivation in such context dependent manner are not well understood yet. It is for example yet unknown how the different metabolic and neural processes interact with external environmental cues in shaping eating behavior or choice. At ATIA we are trying to disentangle how the different external and internal factors impinge on the major psychopharmacological and psychophysiological cascades and how these on their turn lead to long-term overeating in some individuals.

The methodologies we use range from cluster and classification analysis to neural networks learning paradigms used for analysis and exploration of existing data bases. We are also performing prospective longitudinal studies on obese individuals to test specific hypothesis within the above described research framework. Please contact Anneke Alkemade for further information about the research and the ongoing projects.