Central Regulation of Eating Behaviors in Humans: Evidence from Functional Neuroimaging Studies

Abstract

Neuroimaging has great potential to provide insight into the neural response to food stimuli. Remarkable advances have been made in understanding the neural activity underlying food perception, not only in normal eating but also in obesity, eating disorders, and disorders of gut–brain interaction in recent decades. In addition to the abnormal brain function in patients with eating disorders compared to healthy controls, new therapies, such as neurofeedback and neurostimulation techniques, have been developed that target the malfunctioning brain regions in patients with eating disorders based on the results of neuroimaging studies. In this review, we present an overview of early and more recent research on the central processing and regulation of eating behavior in healthy and patient populations. In order to better understand the relationship between the gut and the brain as well as the neural mechanisms underlying abnormal ingestive behaviors, we also provide suggestions for future directions to enhance our current methods used in food-related neuroimaging studies.

Neural Pathways Linking Autonomous Exercise Motivation and Exercise-Induced Unhealthy Eating: A Resting-State fMRI Study

“…Thus, enhanced function in the MFG may help individuals resist the temptation of hedonic foods following exercise. Previous studies have also suggested that the MFG is involved in eating regulation [ 63 , 64 ]. Second, the present study has also found the rsFC of PCB–MOG totally mediated this relationship.…”

GLP-1 increases preingestive satiation via hypothalamic circuits in mice and humans

“…By aligning these observations across species, we provide a comprehensive view of the psychological and neurological dynamics that govern eating behavior. This alignment is particularly critical given the constant exposure to food-related stimuli in modern obesogenic environments, underscoring the need for a phase-specific understanding of eating behavior ( 22 , 32 ).…”

Neurofeedback strategies in binge-eating disorder as predictors of EEG-neurofeedback regulation success

“…Most recently, a study on coordinated looking and reaching in non-human primates showed beta frequency to positively correlate with neural mechanisms responsible for inhibiting natural behavior such as coordinated movement (Hagan and Pesaran, 2022). Regarding the connection with BED and disordered eating, the modulation of GABA action has been mentioned as a potential target for future studies (Mele et al, 2020), but overall, research on the neural response to food stimuli is rare (Chae and Lee, 2023).…”