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The brain’s reward centers in severely obese women actively respond to food cues, even when they're not hungry, according to a recent study by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
The study, published recently in the journal Obesity, compared the brain activity of 15 severely obese women and 15 lean women.
MRI images of the study participants were taken before and after a meal.
Both groups had similar activity in their brains' reward centers when they were hungry and shown a picture of food.
After eating, however, that brain activity dropped among lean participants while continuing in their obese counterparts.
"All the circuits in our brain that drive us to go get food are awake and active. The minute we eat to the point that we're full, in lean people, that whole function of the brain shuts down. But in people who are obese, their brain acted as if they hadn't had a meal at all," said Dr. Nancy Puzziferri, Assistant Professor of Surgery at UT Southwestern and senior author of the study. "Before or after the meal, they’re just as excited about eating.”
“These findings may explain why some people with severe obesity report an underlying drive to eat continually despite not feeling hungry,” said Puzziferri, who specializes in bariatric and weight loss surgery.
“In contrast, lean women, when full, will either stop eating or just sample a food they crave. It’s just not a level playing field. It’s harder for some people to maintain a healthy weight than others.”
Puzziferri says the severely obese women in the study, who weighed between 202 and 316 pounds, were candidates for bariatric surgery to lose weight.
They were reexamined after surgery and MRI showed their brains response to food cues normalized after surgery, "but reverted back to their baseline," said Puzziferri.
Still, she says surgery is worth it for the majority of the people, as 70 percent of gastric bypass procedures are successful.
Eighty-five percent of gastric bypass patients are women, which is why researchers used the brains of women for their study.
Read more on the study here.
