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What Part of the Brain Controls Pleasure:
Dopamine and Obesity
CA Prescott,Yahoo! Contributor Network
May 20, 2010 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
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The brain's pleasure center is associated with telling us when something is enjoyable, and
also prompting us to want to repeat the same activity, or to desire more of what caused the
actual feeling of enjoyment. Recent studies performed have demonstrated that certain
individuals carry a specific gene that reduces dopamine responses in the brain's pleasure
center. People who carry this gene are genetically more susceptible to various forms ofaddiction. Reduced brain activity linked to dopamine may contribute to drug addiction and
obesity. Dopamine levels from the limbic system, moderate our responses to things like food,
recreational drugs, and sexual arousal. According to MedTerms, "Dopamine is classified as a
catecholamine (a class of molecules that serve as neurotransmitters and hormones). It is a
monoamine (a compound containing nitrogen formed from ammonia by replacement of one
or more of the hydrogen atoms by hydrocarbon radicals). Dopamine is a precursor
(forerunner) of adrenaline and a closely related molecule, noradrenaline. Dopamine is formed
by the decarboxylation (removal of a carboxyl group) from dopa."
The article, Brain Dopamine and Obesity states, "Dopamine modulates motivation and
reward circuits and hence dopamine deficiency in obese individuals may perpetuatepathological eating as a means to compensate for decreased activation of these circuits.
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Strategies aimed at improving dopamine function may be beneficial in the treatment of obese
individuals."
Often society's perception of an obese person is based upon the common belief that the
individual enjoys food, more than a person of average size and weight. In fact studies show
that the opposite is actually true for obese people, because they are constantly trying tocompensate for a lack of enjoyment in the pleasure center of the brain, which leads them to
eat increasing amounts of highly caloric foods.
According to WebMD:
Overeating further dulls food enjoyment and locks people in a vicious circle. The finding
comes from real-time brain-imaging studies in obese and lean women by Eric Stice, PhD, of
theOregon Research Institute, and colleagues. "We originally thought obese people would
experience more reward from food. But we see obese people only anticipate more reward;
they get less reward. It is an ironic process," Stice tells WebMD. Stice's team showed women
a picture of a chocolate milkshake and a picture of a glass of water. The heavier the woman,
the more active the pleasure center in her brain. Then the women actually tasted a chocolatemilkshake or a neutral solution. Heavier women had less activity in their brains' pleasure
centers.
"Probably this is related to downregulation of the brain's reward circuit. The more you do
things that are rewarding, the less reward you see," Stice says. "The more you eat an
unhealthy diet, the more you see this blunted pleasure response to high-energy foods."
Stice was not asserting that metabolic function has no role in obesity. He was saying that
when looking at obesity, an impaired pleasure system in the brain should certainly be
considered, in addition to metabolic function. Stice has looked at how dietary modifications,
by an obese person can actually alter the vicious cycle. Over time, when obese people stop
eating the high calorie and fat foods the cravings go down. For many, dietary modifications
may serve as the key to combating an impaired pleasure center in the brain.
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