[WATCH]: Differences in Appetite-Related Brain Activity with High and Low Calorie Food in Pre-Pubescent Girls

The factors behind the neural mechanisms that motivate food choice and obesity are not well known. Furthermore, it is not known when these neural mechanisms develop and how they are influence by both genetic and environmental factors. This study uses fMRI together with clinical data to shed light on the aforementioned questions by investigating how appetite-related activation in the brain changes with low versus high caloric foods in pre-pubescent girls. Previous studies have shown that obese humans have less striatal D2 receptors and thus reduced Dopamine (DA) signaling leading to the reward-deficity theory of obesity. However, overeating reduces D2 receptor density, D2 sensitivity and thus reward sensitivity. The results of

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