Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, USA.
Int J Obes (Lond). 2013 Nov;37(11):1435-42. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2013.26. Epub 2013 Mar 5.
Excessive weight gain and obesity are currently among the world's major threats to health. Women show significantly higher rates of obesity and eating disorders relative to men, but the factors contributing to these gender differences remain uncertain. We examined the correlations between regional brain responses to images of high-calorie versus low-calorie foods and self-reported motivational status, including ratings of general appetite, overeating propensity, state hunger and desire for specific foods.
Thirty-eight healthy right-handed adults (22 male; 16 female) ages 18-45 participated. There were no differences between males and females with regard to age or body mass index (BMI).
Overall, motivational status correlated significantly with activation within the amygdala, insula and orbitofrontal cortex. Regional activation was then used to predict BMI, an indicator of long-term food consumption and energy expenditure. The combined model was significant, accounting for 76% of the variance in BMI for women, whereas the same regions were not predictive of weight status among men.
Findings suggest that long-term weight status is related to visual responsiveness to calorie-dense food imagery among women.
目前，体重过度增加和肥胖是世界范围内对健康的主要威胁之一。与男性相比，女性肥胖和饮食失调的比例明显更高，但导致这些性别差异的因素仍不确定。我们研究了对高热量与低热量食物图像的大脑区域反应与自我报告的动机状态之间的相关性，包括总体食欲、暴饮暴食倾向、饥饿状态和对特定食物的渴望的评价。
38 名健康的右利手成年人（22 名男性；16 名女性）年龄在 18-45 岁之间。男性和女性在年龄或体重指数（BMI）方面没有差异。
总体而言，动机状态与杏仁核、岛叶和眶额皮质内的激活显著相关。然后，区域激活被用来预测 BMI，这是长期食物摄入和能量消耗的指标。该综合模型具有统计学意义，能解释女性 BMI 变化的 76%，而相同的区域并不能预测男性的体重状况。
研究结果表明，长期体重状况与女性对高热量食物图像的视觉反应性有关。
