Changes in brain connectivity associated with food cravings

Obese individuals may be ‘hard-wired’ to crave specific food items, according to data recently presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress.

“There is an ongoing controversy over whether obesity can be called a ‘food addiction’, but in fact there is very little research which shows whether or not this might be true. The findings in our study support the idea that the reward processing following food stimulus in obesity is associated with neural changes similar to those found in substance addiction,” Oren Conreras-Rodriguez, PhD, department of psychiatry, Bellvitge Hospital, Spain, said in a press release.

Conreras-Rodriguez and colleagues analyzed MRI scans of obese (n = 39) and normal-weight (n = 42) individuals to assess the correlation between functional connectivity of the reward-based striatal brain networks during rest and the desire to consume excessive amounts of high-calorie food compared with normal-weight individuals. The researchers developed maps of ventral and dorsal striatal connectivity using a seed-based multiple regression method, according to the abstract. After exposure to a food buffet, participants’ connectivity maps were assessed relative to their desire for the high-calorie food eaten in the buffet. Researchers also assessed changes in BMI after a 3-month diet.

The researchers found that functional connectivity changes in the ventral and dorsal reward-based striatal networks were significant among obese participants compared with normal weight participants. Additionally, they reported a positive association between the desire to consume high-calorie foods and connectivity between the dorsal caudate and the somatosensory cortex.. This connectivity was also associated with weight changes among obese participants after a 3-month diet. Among normal-weight participants, researchers reported functional connectivity between the ventral putamen and the orbitofrontal cortex, which correlated with the desire to consume high-calorie foods. However, the association was only significant in obese with BMI levels as mediators, they wrote.

“This … needs to be viewed as an association between food craving behavior and brain changes, rather than one necessarily causing the other. However, these findings provide potential brain biomarkers which we can use to help manage obesity, for example through pharmacotherapies and brain stimulation techniques that might help control food intake in clinical situations,” Conreras-Rodriquez said in the release.

Disclosures: Healio.com/Internal Medicine was unable to confirm relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.

Reference: Contreras-Rodriquez O, et al. Brain correlates of the desire to food predict body mass index change in excess weight adults. Presented at: European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress; Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2015; Amsterdam.