Journal
REVIEWS IN ENDOCRINE & METABOLIC DISORDERS
Volume 12, Issue 3, Pages 141-151Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11154-011-9166-4
Keywords
Appetite; Food reward; Ghrelin; Liking; Obesity; Wanting
Categories
Funding
- Swedish Research Council for Medicine [2009-S266, K2006-21X-04247-33-3, 2009-2782]
- European Commission [FP7-HEALTH-2009-241592, FP7-KBBE-2009-3-245009, FP7-KBBE-2010-4-266408]
- FOU/ALF Goteborg [ALFGBG-138741, ALFGBG-7341]
- Swedish Brain Foundation
- Torsten and Ragnar Soderberg foundation
- Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research to Sahlgrenska Center for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research [A305-188]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Here we review the emerging neurobiological understanding of the role of the brain's reward system in the regulation of body weight in health and in disease. Common obesity is characterized by the over-consumption of palatable/rewarding foods, reflecting an imbalance in the relative importance of hedonic versus homeostatic signals. The popular 'incentive salience theory' of food reward recognises not only a hedonic/pleasure component ('liking') but also an incentive motivation component ('wanting' or 'reward-seeking'). Central to the neurobiology of the reward mechanism is the mesoaccumbal dopamine system that confers incentive motivation not only for natural rewards such as food but also by artificial rewards (eg. addictive drugs). Indeed, this mesoaccumbal dopamine system receives and integrates information about the incentive (rewarding) value of foods with information about metabolic status. Problematic over-eating likely reflects a changing balance in the control exerted by hypothalamic versus reward circuits and/or it could reflect an allostatic shift in the hedonic set point for food reward. Certainly, for obesity to prevail, metabolic satiety signals such as leptin and insulin fail to regain control of appetitive brain networks, including those involved in food reward. On the other hand, metabolic control could reflect increased signalling by the stomach-derived orexigenic hormone, ghrelin. We have shown that ghrelin activates the mesoaccumbal dopamine system and that central ghrelin signalling is required for reward from both chemical drugs (eg alcohol) and also from palatable food. Future therapies for problematic over-eating and obesity may include drugs that interfere with incentive motivation, such as ghrelin antagonists.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available