Obese individuals possess impaired connections between the dorsolateral hippocampus and the lateral hypothalamus, which may impact their ability to control or regulate emotional responses when anticipating rewarding meals or treats, according to new research.
“Our findings underscore that some individual’s brains can be fundamentally different in regions that increase the risk for obesity,” said Dr. Casey Halpern, a researcher at Penn Medicine and the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
“Conditions like disordered eating and obesity are a lot more complicated than simply managing self-control and eating healthier.”
“What these individuals need is not more willpower, but the therapeutic equivalent of an electrician that can make right these connections inside their brain.”
The dorsolateral hippocampus is located in the region of the brain that processes memory, and the lateral hypothalamus is in the region of the brain that is responsible for keeping the body in a stable state, called homeostasis.
Previous research has found an association with loss of function in the human hippocampus in individuals with obesity and related disordered eating, like binge eating disorder.
However, outside of imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the role of the hippocampus has been difficult to study in humans with obesity and related eating disorders.
In their new study, Dr. Halpern and colleagues were able to evaluate patients whose brains were already being monitored electrically in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit.
They monitored brain activity as patients anticipated and then received a sweet treat (a chocolate milkshake).
The authors found that both the dorsolateral hippocampus and the lateral hypothalamus activated simultaneously when participants anticipated receiving the rewarding meal.
Using stimulation techniques, they confirmed that this specific zone of the hippocampus, the dorsolateral hippocampus, and…
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