Mapping of the brain regions responsible for eating behavior regulation with functional MRI

Abstract

Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the regulationof eating behavior plays the leading role in assessment of foodintake in normal individuals and in patients with obesity. Modernneuroimaging methods, such as functional MRI (fMRI), mayshed the light on these mechanisms. A simple and reproduciblevisual fMRI-paradigm was developed for the assessment of topdownexecutive control of eating behavior. Using this paradigm,three main components of the regulatory neural system were revealed,and the region of interest, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,was identified.

Keywords

• fmri
• paradigm
• brain
• perception of food
• obesity
• dorsolateral prefrontal cortex