2023-08-22 15:19:00
In obese people, the excessive desire for food ‘turns on’ particular brain circuits, triggering real withdrawal crises. This mechanism has been identified and described by an Italian study conducted by researchers from the Bicocca, Statale and Irccs MultiMedica and Galeazzi-Sant’Ambrogio universities in Milan, now online in the journal ‘The Obesity Society’, and in the forthcoming printed issue of ‘Obesity’ in September. The results obtained pave the way for new interventions for the treatment of obesity, in particular for the use of non-invasive brain neuromodulation techniques.
At the basis of the phenomenon – explains a note from the Milan Bicocca University – a reinforcement of the connections between ‘desire’ areas with specific visual areas and a lower connection with the frontal control regions. For the first time, the ventral tegmental area of the brain (Vta), crucial for motivated behaviors, has been shown to have increased connectivity with other brain regions in obese people in obese people. The structures involved concern motivation and reward appreciation, linked to the gratifying properties of food.
Obesity is therefore accompanied by a functional alteration of the brain even when it is not involved in specific cognitive or sensory processes, ie ‘at rest’. On the one hand, the Vta is hyperconnected with part of the ventral occipitotemporal cortex, responsible for the visual processing of images of food: this closer connection reflects a stronger association between stimulus (the sight of food) and reward (the consumption of food); on the other hand it is hypoconnected with the frontal lobe: this weaker connection would explain an altered cognitive control over the desire for food and behavior towards high-calorie foods.
According to the researchers, the analyzed functional anatomical pathways are involved in food cravings. Our data suggests that food-related visual stimuli may become overly salient through an unbalanced connectivity of the reward system with specific visual sensory regions and the prefrontal cortex involved in cognitive control.
“Our study is important for basic scientists, for clinicians and also for patients – said Francantonio Devoto, researcher at Milano-Bicocca and author of the research -. With this work we provide a new interpretation of the brain mechanisms underlying the ‘excessive food motivation in obesity, a feeling that every overweight or obese person has experienced when tempted by images of food.’ The study provides the rationale for using noninvasive brain neuromodulation techniques during specific tasks to recalibrate the connectivity of the lateral frontal cortex with the midbrain regions of motivation.
Among the authors of the study, conducted by Francantonio Devoto and coordinated by Eraldo Paulesu, both from the Milan-Bicocca Department of Psychology, are also Livio Luzi and Anna Ferrulli (Irccs MultiMedica and University of Milan), Giuseppe Banfi (Irccs Galeazzi- Sant’Ambrogio) and Laura Zapparoli (Milan-Bicocca and Irccs Galeazzi-Sant’Ambrogio).
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