Investigation Into the Effects Upon Brain Response to Change in Circulating Glucose Levels in Diabetes Mellitus

Study Summary

This study is designed to investigate the effects of diabetes mellitus and its treatment upon the body's responses to low blood glucose (blood sugar) levels. Diabetes is a medical condition in which blood glucose can rise very high. Treatment of diabetes mellitus involves giving insulin (a hormone), which can occasionally cause blood glucose to fall too low. The body responds to low glucose levels by producing a number of hormones, which act against the insulin to help correct the low blood glucose. These hormones also provide symptoms which warn that the glucose is falling too far. These protective warnings by the body may be different in people with diabetes. We want to test whether this also means that diabetes changes the sensitivity of brain function to a lowering of blood glucose levels. In order to answer this question, we need to compare the response of people with diabetes with the response of people who do not have diabetes. The plan of the study is to lower the subject's blood glucose using insulin, while measuring what changes occur in brain function using what is called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Primary Outcome

Brain response is operationally defined as: fMRI BOLD signal to detect differences in brain activation in response to changes in glucose levels taken between 4 to 8 weeks after subject enrollment.

Conditions Studied

Study Locations (1)