Name: a method for manipulating blood glucose and measuring resulting changes in cognitive accessibility of target stimuli
Uploaded: 2016-08-12T13:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Method for Manipulating Blood Glucose and Measuring Resulting Changes in Cognitive Accessibility of Target Stimuli at JoVE.com

This research was conducted with grant funding from the Anthony M. Marchionne Foundation (70256-23284) and TCU IS. The authors thank Danielle DelPriore, Amanda Morin, and Christopher Rodeheffer for their helpful contributions towards shaping these methods.&#160;The authors would also like to thank Hannah Bradshaw and Randi Proffitt Leyva for their assistance with filming this protocol.

Ethics Statement: Procedures and incentives involving human subjects have been approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Texas Christian University.
1. Participant Inclusion Factors and Recruitment
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	<li>Exclude people who have sugar sensitivities or any other health condition, like diabetes or other conditions that impair glucoregulation, and that would preclude them from being able to safely consume a sugar sweetened or artificially sweetened beverage. Exclude participants wi...

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	<li>Smith, M. A., Riby, L. M., van Eekelen, J. A. M., Foster, J. K. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Glucose+enhancement+of+human+memory:+A+comprehensive+research+review+of+the+glucose+memory+facilitation+effect.">Glucose enhancement of human memory: A comprehensive research review of the glucose memory facilitation effect.</a> Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 35, 770-783 (2011).</li><li>Meikle, A., Riby, L. M., Stollery, B. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+impact+of+glucose+ingestion+and+gluco-regulatory+control+on+cognitive+performance:+A+comparison+of+younger+and+middle+aged+adults.">The impact of glucose ingestion and gluco-regulatory control on cognitive performance: A comparison of younger and middle aged adults.</a> Hum Psychopharm Clin. 19, 523-535 (2004).</li><li>Riby, L. 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This manuscript outlines a simple, inexpensive procedure for manipulating blood glucose, as well as a procedure for measuring resulting changes in the cognitive accessibility of target words and concepts. The above outlined methods can be applied to a wide range of research areas including social psychology, cognitive psychology, and nutrition sciences. Given that this method may be used by people in multiple research areas (some that do not typically use survey data), this section will present some tips on critical step...

Researchers in cognitive psychology and neuroscience have long studied the impact of blood glucose fluctuations on the brain, cognition, and behavior1. For example, researchers have found that fluctuations in blood glucose predict differences in memory (verbal, digit span, working, and episodic)1-5, attention6,7, puzzle solving8, and performance on tasks of varying levels of cognitive demand2,9,10. This research finds that increasing blood glucose enhances attention and memory, and that these effects are strongest when working on cognitively demanding tasks, and in those of older age1,3.
In recent decades, research on the impact of blood glucose fluctuations on human psychology has also become a topic of interest in the field of social psychology11-13. Fluctuations in blood glucose have been linked to changes in mood14, motivation15, self-control11-13, attitudes16,17, prejudice18, and to changes in decision-making in consumer19, eating20,21, and financial domains22. Because these results transcend a wide variety of dependent variables, the message about the role of blood glucose in decision-making is clear: blood glucose is the critical form of energy to the brain, and depletions in blood glucose lead to important changes in cognition and self regulation11,13,15.
Given the important role that blood glucose plays in various psychological and behavioral outcomes, the current manuscript offers a simple method for manipulating blood glucose that researchers can use for testing a range of cognitions and behaviors. Additionally, the current manuscript provides a method for assessing the cognitive accessibility of target words or concepts that may change in response to fluctuations in blood glucose using a lexical decision task. The efficiency of the present methods make them ideal for experimental research, as they effectively manipulate blood glucose and measure cognitive changes using relatively inexpensive, commercially-available products. The affordability of the present blood glucose manipulation makes it easier to run the large numbers of participants needed to obtain the adequate power needed to detect statistically significant differences in behavior caused by any manipulated changes in blood glucose23. Additionally, the lexical decision task is useful in that it can reveal implicit changes in cognition not easily accessed through more explicit measures such as self-report surveys24.
The described blood glucose manipulation task involves an 8 hour fasting period followed by the directed consumption of a caloric or a calorie-free drink22. After fasting for eight hours, participants are randomly assigned to consume either a sugar sweetened beverage or water. This method also allows for the testing of any unique effects produced by non-caloric sweeteners (e.g. aspartame, sucralose), which taste sweet like traditional caloric sweeteners, but do not contain the sugars needed to raise blood glucose levels20,22,25. If interested in the effects of non-calorically sweetened beverages, this task includes an optional, 3rd between-subjects condition in which participants consume a &#34;zero-calorie&#34; drink. The current method has been applied successfully in multiple social psychological paradigms12,18,22, and offers a shorter way to test for the effects of changes in blood glucose upon self-regulation than previously used measures like glucose tolerance tests26.
The authors also provide a procedure for assessing the cognitive accessibility of target words, or concepts, using a lexical decision task27,28. In this task, letter strings and words are presented via computer in rapid-fire format, and typically fall into a few distinct conceptual categories (in the described research, the categories were: high fat food words, low fat food words, non-words). Participants are asked to quickly identify (typically via keystroke) whether a string of letters (e.g. fhens; pizza) is a word or a non-word. The reaction speed in which participants correctly identify letter strings in each conceptual category measures the relative ease with which the participant is able to mentally process words in that concept category. Quicker reactions mean that a concept is more mentally accessible, and thus, &#34;on someone&#39;s mind&#34;24,29,30. As a consequence, lexical decision tasks make useful dependent variables, and can also be used as effective manipulation checks to measure if a recently primed concept (see reference30 for more information on priming) is indeed subsequently more cognitively accessible than it would be in the absence of a prime. Although the lexical decision task is a task that has been used in social psychology for decades29, the current manuscript presents some minor variations to the procedure, a link to an editable program template27, and an empirically validated list of words from the authors&#39; previous work that measures the cognitive accessibility of healthy versus non healthy foods20. It is the authors&#39; hope that the further adaptation of these two procedures will help lead to innovations in the fields of social psychological research, in eating behavior and energy regulation research, and will facilitate further comparative research that combines the perspectives and methodology of&#160;multiple disciplines.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="607">
	<tbody>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:216px;">Survey Building Software</td>
			<td style="width:105px;">Qualtrics</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">Qualtrics Research Suite</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">Alternative survey building softwares / applications include Survey Monkey, Google Forms, Media Lab, and Inquisit software.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:216px;">Behavioral Task Software (for lexical decision task)</td>
			<td style="width:105px;">Inquisit</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">Inquisit 4 Lab (4.0.8.0)</td>
			<td>Alternative behavioral task softwares / applications include Media Lab / Direct RT or programming the task into an internet browser using a programming language of your choice (such as java).</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="106">
			<td height="106" style="height:106px;width:216px;">Batch File&#160;</td>
			<td style="width:105px;">Microsoft&#160;</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">Microsoft Notepad; Windows</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="106">
			<td height="106" style="height:106px;width:216px;">Lexical Decision Task Template</td>
			<td style="width:105px;">Millisecond</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">Millisecond survey library, cited template author is linked on page</td>
			<td>Can build a lexical decision task by hand in other behavioral task softwares.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="63">
			<td height="63" style="height:63px;width:216px;">Participant Scheduling and Compensation Software</td>
			<td style="width:105px;">SONA systems</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">SONA systems scheduling software</td>
			<td>Appointments can be arranged manually, too.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="63">
			<td height="63" style="height:63px;width:216px;">Statistical Analysis Software</td>
			<td style="width:105px;">IBM</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">IBM SPSS Statistics Standard, 22</td>
			<td>Alternate softwares include SAS and R.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="63">
			<td height="63" style="height:63px;width:216px;">Blood glucose manipulating beverege paradigm</td>
			<td style="width:105px;">Coca Cola&#160;</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">Sprite, Sprite Zero, Sparkling water</td>
			<td>Can use any store brand sugary beverage, non calorically sweetened beverage, and sparkling water beverage, as long as beverages are not easily discernable from each other by sight.&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:216px;">Lancet</td>
			<td style="width:105px;">Assure</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">Assure Lanets 23 gauge</td>
			<td>Many brands of testing lancets available both online and at local pharmacies.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Blood glucose testing meter</td>
			<td style="width:105px;">Bayer&#39;s</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">Breeze 2</td>
			<td>Many brands of testing meters available both online and at local pharmacies.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Blood glucose testing strips</td>
			<td style="width:105px;">Bayer&#39;s</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">Breeze 2</td>
			<td>Many brands of testing strips available both online and at local pharmacies, but they must be compatible with your chosen meter.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="63">
			<td height="63" style="height:63px;width:216px;">&#160;Nitrile exam gloves (400 count)</td>
			<td style="width:105px;">Kirkland</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">Kirkland Signature Nitrile Exam Gloves</td>
			<td>Any medical grade exam glove that provides sufficient protection from blood exposure can be used.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="84">
			<td height="84" style="height:84px;width:216px;">Disinfecting wipes</td>
			<td style="width:105px;">Lysol</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">Lysol Disinfecting Wipes Lemon Scent</td>
			<td>Any wipe that can kill off any bloodborne or contact born contaminants.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

a method for manipulating blood glucose and measuring resulting changes in cognitive accessibility of target stimuli

Much research in social psychology has investigated the impact of bodily energy need on cognition and decision-making. As such, blood glucose, the body's primary energy source, has been of special interest to researchers for years. Fluctuations in blood glucose have been linked to a variety of changes in cognitive and behavioral processes, such as self-control, political attitudes, and eating behavior. To help meet growing interest in the links between bodily energy need and these processes, this manuscript offers a simple methodology to experimentally manipulate blood glucose using a fasting procedure followed by administration of a sugar-sweetened, unsweetened, or artificially-sweetened beverage. This is followed by presentation of a method for measuring resulting changes in implicit cognition using a lexical decision-task. In this task, participants are asked to identify whether strings of letters are words or non-words and response latencies are recorded. Sample results from a recent publication are presented as an example of the applications for the experimental manipulation of blood glucose and the lexical decision task measures.

Participants
The above methods were implemented in a study run by Hill and colleagues20 at a midsize, private university in the southern United States. The undergraduate population at the university provided the subject sample and participants received partial course credit as compensation for study participation. Using the exact methods outlined in the current manuscript protocol, the authors ran participants through...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Method for Manipulating Blood Glucose and Measuring Resulting Changes in Cognitive Accessibility of Target Stimuli at JoVE.com

A Method for Manipulating Blood Glucose and Measuring Resulting Changes in Cognitive Accessibility of Target Stimuli

The authors introduce a method for manipulating blood glucose and measuring resulting changes in cognitive accessibility of target words using a lexical decision task.

Much research in social psychology has investigated the impact of bodily energy need on cognition and decision-making.  As such, blood glucose, the body's ...

Research

JoVE Journal

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