For the first time, researchers have discovered that the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain—a key structure involved in motivation and reward appreciation—has altered connectivity patterns with specific brain regions in patients with obesity. Individuals with obesity have hyper-connectivity of the VTA with part of the ventral occipitotemporal cortex (visual processing for food images) and hypo-connectivity with the left inferior frontal gyrus (associated with cognitive control), according to a new study in Obesity.
, patients may appreciate that there soon might be more strategies becoming available for their treatment."
In the current research, the study's authors characterized resting-state functional connectivity of the VTA in 23 healthy-weight adults compared to the same number of adults with obesity in order to investigate whether obesity is associated with altered mesocorticolimbic activity. The two groups were matched for age, gender and education.imaging scan and an assessment for impulsivity, food craving, appetite and implicit bias for food and non-food stimuli.
The study's authors explained that the findings provide two insights: tighter VTA-ventral occipitotemporal cortex connectivity may reflect stronger cue-reward associations in obesity, which favors food craving via the automatic activation of the rewarding properties of food; and weaker coupling of the VTA with the lateral prefrontal cortex may contribute to faulty cognitive control over food craving and behavior due to inefficient down regulation of the midbrain via the prefrontal cortex.
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