A fascinating new study has revealed that obese and overweight people have a “differently shaped brain” to individuals of a healthy weight. The discovery was made by scientists from the University of Cambridge.
Scientists were already aware of a link between a person’s brain and their weight. This is because a tiny almond-sized part of the brain, called the hypothalamus, is in charge of regulating our appetites, through releasing hormones that tell us when we’re full.
How the brain links to weight
However, the tiny size of this brain region means that it is hard to scan and learn more about. Scientists have therefore had to rely largely on animal studies in the past.
But in some groundbreaking research, Dr Stephanie Brown and her colleagues were able to get past this setback through machine learning. They developed an algorithim which allowed them to analyse MRI brain scans from 1,351 young adults with a range of BMI scores.
The results revealed differences between the brains of overweight, healthy weight and underweight individuals. Those who were overweight and obese tended to have a larger hypothalamus.
Could a high fat-diet change your brain?
The study’s findings suggest that an increase in body weight could lead to inflammation of the hypothalamus. This could then lead to insulin resistance and obesity. Previous animal studies have shown that this is the case in mice.
Dr Brown explained: “If what we see in mice is the case in people, then eating a high-fat diet could trigger inflammation of our appetite control center. Over time, this would change our ability to tell when we’ve eaten enough and to how our body processes blood sugar, leading us to put on weight.”
The researcher and her team hope that the new study might give us a better understanding of how to treat obesity, which affects around 1.9 billion people worldwide.
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