Canadian and US neuroscientists hav...

Canadian and US neuroscientists have identified areas of the brain that may underlie addiction and eating disorders, according to an Aug 28 2001 novels release from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. Scientists identified these areas on using positron emission tomography scans to measure brain activity in family eating chocolate.

Researchers asked participants to rate the pleasantness of eating chocolate and establish that their ratings were associated with increased offspring flow to particular areas of the brain, including the orbital frontal cortex and the midbrain. These areas also are activated by way of addictive drugs, such as cocaine. Different areas of the brain, however, are affected when participants perceive eating chocolate as aversive (eg eating too long chocolate).

Fifteen participants were given between 16 and 74 squares (ie, 40 to 170 g) of chocolate. They were required to permit these melt slowly in their orifices Researchers measured participants' brain activity as they became sated and as they ate despite no longer wanting to. good brain regions were activated depending in succession whether participants were eating when they wanted to versus when they were glutted One problem with studying addicts, however, is that researchers do not know what their brains were like before they became addicted, according to the release.

Measuring Brain Activity in commonalty Eating Chocolate Offers New strings About How the Body Becomes Addicted (new release, Chicago: Northwestern University, Aug 28 2001) http://www.northwestern.edu/univ-relations/media_relations/releases /august/chocobrain.html (accessed 20 tribe 2001).

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