A recent study on brain activity seems to refute the commonly held opinion that overweight people eat more because they love to eat. The study, conducted through the Oregon Research Institute, found that obese people actually enjoy food less, and so end up eating more in order to compensate.
"[When women] tasted a chocolate milkshake or tasteless liquid, the heavier women had less activity in their brains' pleasure centers. The women with the gene variant had the lowest pleasure response when tasting the milkshake. They had to consume more of the shake to get the same pleasure response."
The gene variant, known at Taq1A1, appears to be linked with lower dopamine receptors in the brain. Since dopamine is the primary transmitter for the brain's reward system, fewer receptors means the reward system is impeded. Researchers are now trying to determine whether reward systems can be reset. Source: Health News
Labels: brain_activity, causes of childhood obesity, genetics