Understanding Brain’s Regulation of Eating Behavior

A connection between the function of the opioid system and food craving triggered by appetitive external stimuli is discovered by researchers at the Turku PET Centre, Finland. Animal studies have already established that the brain’s opioid and endocannabinoid systems are important in regulating eating behavior and mediate the food reward experience.

In general, both internal signals of the body, such as fluctuation in blood sugar levels, and external stimuli, such as food advertisements can spark an appetite in humans.

In their new study, researchers investigated the connection between the brain’s opioid and endocannabinoid signaling and different types of eating behavior.They discovered that the function of the opioid system is connected to eating triggered by external stimuli.

“The less binding sites there were for the opioids, the greater was the tendency to eat in response to external stimuli, such as seeing appetizing food. Moreover, the number of binding sites for endocannabinoids was connected to several different types of eating behavior, describes first author,” Doctoral Candidate Tatu Kantonen from the University of Turku.

The results indicate that especially the opioid system could be a potential target for anti-obesity drugs in humans. The study findings are published in Translational Psychiatry.

Source-Medindia