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Matthew Will, assistant psychology professor
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Research
Links Binge Eating
to Specific Brain Area
By Jeff Neu
Recent studies show that 65 percent of the
U.S. population is either clinically obese or overweight. Over-consumption,
or binge eating, of high amounts of fats, carbohydrates and sugar
is, according to some researchers, largely responsible for this
epidemic. A University of Missouri-Columbia researcher has discovered
an area of the brain that appears to control the intake of high-fat
foods.
“Interestingly, this region only controlled
feeding that occurred after the subject reached fullness, and
had no effect on the normal response that hunger brings,”
said Matthew Will, an MU assistant psychology
professor, who conducted the study along with Ann Kelley of the
University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Prior research, Will said, has determined
that the release of opioids, which are “pleasure”
chemicals in the brain that can cause euphoria, into a region
of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, controls the intake
of highly palatable, or tasty, foods like ice cream. This chemical
release increases the intake of fat and sugar-containing foods
by 300 percent. Using this method as a model for binge eating,
Will and Kelley found that while deactivating the basolateral
amygdala, a section of the brain located in the temporal lobe
that affects emotion and motivation, had no effect on the normal
consumption of a high fat diet, it completely prevented the binge
eating of fat produced by the opioid activation of the nucleus
accumbens.
In the study, Will examined different groups
of rats where the release of opioids in the nucleus accumbens
occurred with either the simultaneous inactivation of the amygdala
or a controlled saline solution. The rats were then put in cages
with a jar containing high-fat food. Will found that the rats
that were administered opioids into the nucleus accumbens ate
three times more fat than the rats given the saline solution.
However, those rats in which the basolateral amygdala was inactivated
did not binge.
“Given the current epidemic of obesity,
understanding how these networks in the brain control the desire
for food is extremely important,” Will said. “This
research demonstrates that a specific brain region may be responsible
for feeding beyond the basic metabolic needs signaled by hunger,
such as those instances when you can’t turn down that delicious
chocolate chip cookie, or when you simply need an emotional boost
from a bowl of ice cream.”
Will’s study was published in the August edition of NeuroReport.
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Last Update:
November 15, 2007
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