Thursday 19 January 2017

Food cravings may be 'hard-wired' in the brain

Sometimes it's good to treat yourself
Sometimes it's good to treat yourself

Obese people may have brains that are hard-wired to find food irresistible, a study has found.

Food craving is associated with different kinds of brain connectivity in those who are obese and of normal weight, research shows.

Scientists offered buffet- style snacks to 39 obese and 42 normal weight individuals who then had their brains scanned while being shown photographs of the food they had just enjoyed.

The functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans showed that in obese participants, looking at the food pictures stimulated connectivity between two specific brain areas.

The first, the dorsal caudate, helps control reward-based behaviour while the second, the somatosensory cortex, is involved in tracking the energetic value of food.

Greater connectivity between the two was positively associated with a desire to consume high-calorie food.

Further research showed that 11pc of weight gain in obese individuals over a period of three months could be predicted by the presence of higher dorsal caudate connectivity.


Lead researcher Dr Oren Contreras-Rodriguez, from the University of Granada in Spain, said: "There is an ongoing controversy over whether obesity can be called a 'food addiction', but in fact there is very little research which shows whether or not this might be true.


"These findings provide potential brain biomarkers which we can use to help manage obesity that might help control food intake."

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