Are you afraid of obesity? Check your dopamine receptors!
The reaction of one of the brain regions to the taste of food allows, after a single test, to identify a person's tendency to obesity and predict how his weight will change in the future, according to an article published in the journal Science by a group of American scientists.The authors of the article, researchers from Yale University, the Universities of Oregon and Texas at Austin, studied the reaction to the taste of food in one of the areas of the brain - the posterior part of the striatum (dorsal striatum), which produces the hormone dopamine, responsible for the feeling of pleasure.
Eric Stice from the University of Texas at Austin and his colleagues examined a group of college students, studying with the help of tomography how the dopamine receptors in their brain react to the taste of a milkshake and a tasteless solution. They found that the activity of these receptors is inversely proportional to the body mass index (the ratio of height and weight).
"Research has shown that obese people may have fewer dopamine receptors, and they overeat to compensate for a lack of food enjoyment. They need more of a substance that brings pleasure, whether it's a drug or food, to experience the same pleasure as ordinary people," says Stice.
The researchers also showed that the lack of dopamine is caused genetically, and the dopamine reaction itself allows, after a single check, to predict how a person's weight will change in the future.
"This shows the possibility of creating pharmacological and psychological tools that will correct the lack of pleasure from food and help prevent or cure obesity," Sties believes, whose words are quoted in a report by the Oregon Research Institute.