Obesity can impair brain’s ability to detect fullness
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts – A recent study has found that obesity may impair the brain’s ability to detect satiety.
Research suggests that brain changes persist even after weight loss in obese people. This explains why many people regain the weight they previously lost.
Dr. Caroline Apovian, a professor at Harvard Medical School, said there is no evidence that the brain can reverse the effects caused by obesity.
People with obesity continue to suffer deficits in the chemical reactions that signal satiety.
The study involved 30 medically obese people and 30 people of normal weight.
The participants were given sugar, carbohydrates, fats, or water directly into their stomachs via a stomach tube.
The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) to monitor the brain’s response over 30 minutes.
They focused on the striatum, a brain region responsible for motivation to seek and consume food.
In normal-weight individuals, brain signals in the striatum slowed when sugar or fats entered the digestive tract.
However, in medically obese individuals, brain activity did not decrease and dopamine levels did not increase when the same nutrients were administered via a feeding tube.
This study helps explain why people prefer high-fat foods over healthier options, as the fat in such foods triggers a stronger biological response in the brain.
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