A new study has discovered the connection between two brain regions may affect how much a person eats, and if it’s weaker, they tend to have a higher body mass index (BMI).
The research, conducted by Northwestern Medicine, found one reason on why some people stop eating when they feel full and other’s can’t, is down to a connection between two regions in the brain – and if its weak, it can lead to a higher BMI.
The scientists found the connection between the olfactory tubercle – the brain’s reward system – and the periaqueductal gray (PAG) – behavior responding to pain and threat and suppression of eating.
They believe smell has an important role in food intake, and how hungry we feel.
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But scientists don’t know fully how the sense of smell plays a part in how much people eat.
Corresponding author Guangyu Zhou said if the brain circuits between these two regions are effected or disrupted, it may mean people eat more despite being full – and in turn, have a higher BMI.
He said, via ScienceDaily: “The desire to eat is related to how appealing the smell of food is – food smells better when you are hungry than when you are full.
“But if the brain circuits that help guide this behavior are disrupted, these signals may get confused, leading to food being rewarding even when you are full. If this happens, a person’s BMI could increase. And that is what we found. When the structural connection between these two brain regions is weaker, a person’s BMI is higher, on average.”
The study did not directly show it, but the authors hypothesize if the brain networks are healthy, it would send messages telling the individual not to eat when they feel full or it won’t feel good anymore. But those with a weak connection may not receive these signals to stop, and overeat.
“Understanding how these basic processes work in the brain is an important prerequisite to future work that can lead to treatments for overeating,” added senior author Christina Zelano, associate professor of neurology at Feinberg.
Researches used MRI brain data to build a network map of the brain, finding correlations to BMI and the connection between the olfactory tubercle and PAG. Zhou then mapped the strength of the circuit, replicating the findings in other MRI brain datasets.
The study will be published in the Journal of Neuroscience on May 16.
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