Neuroscience of overeating: Pet study provides insight
The prevalence of obesity has almost tripled globally since 1975, according to the World Health Firm (WHO).
By 2016, 39% of adults all over the world had overweight, and 13% had obesity.
The problem is specially acute in the USA, where in fact the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that the prevalence of obesity among adults was 42% in 2017-2018.
Overweight and obesity are actually associated with coronary disease, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and severe COVID-19. They also increase the risk of certain types of tumors.
The WHO blame what they call the global obesity epidemic on declines in exercise, and rising consumption of energy-dense food.
Healthcare pros recommend a range of simple behavioral ways of reduce overeating, such as for example smaller portion sizes, eating more slowly, and keeping calorific snack foods out of sight found in the kitchen.
However, as in lots of other pets or animals, our brains have advanced to maximize energy intake.
A global team of scientists led by the University of Florida on Gainesville has discovered a region of the mind called the infralimbic cortex (IL) is important in the original learning of food-seeking and food self-administration behaviors.
Sweet temptation
People tend to overeat when they are exposed to environmental cues that remind them of treats, said Dr. Sergio Iñiguez, among the researchers who directs the Iñiguez Behavioral Neuroscience Lab at the University of Texas at El Paso.
He claims that is one reason people choose dessert even just after a filling meal. Thus, a glimpse of the sweet treats on a dessert trolley might tempt persons even if they are full.
The researchers discovered that they could reduce overeating in rats that had merely learned to associate edible treats with a specific cue. The scientists does this by switching off activity in the family pets’ IL, which is section of the medial prefrontal cortex near to the front of the brain.
“This is a major discovery because we now have experimental tools that allow us to carefully turn off neurons while the subjects engage in a particular behavior,” said Dr. Iñiguez.
“This research shows that a specific section of the prefrontal cortex of the brain is important for the initial stages of understanding how to seek food.”
In the long term, the discovery could bring about the development of new ways to stop overeating in humans.
Eating on cue
The scientists first trained rats to press a lever to get a food pellet. When the rats pressed the lever, the meals was sent and, at a same period, a light switched on, which was the cue.
So that you can identify the earliest stages of food-related learning in the brain, the scientists compared activity in the brains of pets or animals that learned quickly with those that took longer.
They discovered that mini-circuits, or “ensembles,” of neurons in the IL were a lot more mixed up in fast learners than in the slow ones.
When the experts blocked the activity of the neuron ensembles in the quickly learners, the animals started to be less inclined to press the lever to get food when the light came on.
The authors conclude:
“Considered together, these data suggest that IL neuronal ensembles are formed during the acquisition of foodstuff self-administration behavior and these ensembles are necessary pertaining to the expression of food-seeking tendencies. These experiments may reveal the neurobiological underpinnings of foodstuff memories and motivation to obtain food.”
It is value noting that the key objective of this research was to test theories about what happens in the mind during food-related learning instead of to build up clinical applications to reduce overeating.
In addition, what happens in the brains of lab rats as they learn how to acquire food might not exactly accurately reflect what goes on in human brains in real-world situations.
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com
