Milkshake study reveals brain's role in obesity

Milkshake study reveals brain's role in obesity

• A study involving chocolate that milkshakes helps to get a better understanding of how the brain influences obesity. Generally, Obese people may get less satisfaction from food due to a blunted response in brain particularly if they carry a specific gene variant. In general when a person is eating, the body releases its dopamine and the amount of pleasure from food rely on the amount of dopamine released. Brain scans show that obese people had less activity in the dorsal striatum, the part of the brain that releases dopamine in response to eating. Those who showed the most diminished brain response to the milkshakes and also had this genetic trait were at high risk for unhealthy weight gain in the ensuing year. The evidence of blunted response leading to future weight gain clearly seems to suggest that people are over-eating in response to this diminished reward that they experience when they eat.

• The findings help explain the biology of obesity at a time when obesity rates are rising in many parts of the world.
  The study involved 43 female college students ages 18-22 and 33 adolescent girls ages 14-18. The researchers tracked their weight for a year after performing the brain scans.