http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=65452

Modern Imaging Unravels Causes Of Addictive Behaviour - A Possible

Basis For New Therapies?

What can radiology contribute to the treatment of obesity

(adipositas)? Evidently a great deal, as was made clear at the

European Congress of Radiology (ECR 2007) at Austria Center Vienna.

Whereas structural magnetic resonance tomography (sMRI) images only

the shape and volume of certain regions of the brain, functional

magnetic resonance tomography (fMRI) allows radiologists to observe

the brain in operation, as it were, and to unravel mysteries in the

process that could pave the way to new forms of therapy.

In fMRI research at the Department for Radiology at the Berliner

Charité (Professor Dr. Georg Bohner), it was recently found that the

saying 'you eat with your eyes' is true in a problematic way, at

least for obese individuals. Scientists examined the brain functions

of 13 highly obese females and 13 normal-weight females while the

subjects were shown slides of food of varying calorie content.

Whereas the normal-weight individuals displayed no neural activation

not also found in the obese subjects, visual exposure to culinary

delights did activate several areas of the brain in the obese

subjects that were not 'triggered' in the control group. The higher

the calories content of the depicted food, the greater the activation.

It was also found that the primary taste cortex, as well as parts of

the brain that belong to the body's so-called reward system, were

also activated in the obese subjects. Certain circuits in the brains

of the obese subjects also led to the release of the happiness

hormones dopamine and serotonin at the mere thought of food. It is a

vicious circle, because without food, there is no reward and feelings

of unpleasure arise.

"Quite similar mechanisms were found in the brain functions of

gambling addicts," noted Professor Dr. Stefan Sunaert, a physician

from the Department of Radiology at the Catholic University of Leuven

in Belgium. "That means we can now also use fMRI as a diagnostic and

control instrument for addiction therapies. A before/after comparison

of the scans would have to show whether a psychological treatment

aimed at disassociating emotional satisfaction from food had really

been effective." Professor Sunaert also noted the possibility of

developing new treatment strategies utilising fMRI. "Medicinal

therapies with serotonin inhibitors are conceivable, as are therapies

with substances that have a direct effect on the hypothalamus and

that eliminate the feeling of hunger. Another possibility would be to

use electrodes to stimulate the brain directly, especially the

capsula anterior and the nucleus accumbens, the main pleasure centre

of the brain. Tests on people with obsessive compulsive disorder,

OCD, have shown that their desire to engage in these behaviours

ceases when the centre of pleasure is activated in another way. We

can evaluate all these phenomena much more quickly now, because we

can actually see whether neural activation is normalising."

Deep down, I have always had a feeling that we, the O and MO, are different from our thin bretheren and this is another piece of the evidence. Eventually I think they will work it out but I can't wait any longer so that is why I got my band.:clap2:

On anothe note,

.........."A before/after comparison of the scans would have to show whether a psychological treatment aimed at disassociating emotional satisfaction from (substitue the appropritate noun) had really been effective."..........

I think this is a good application for determining whether serial killers and child molesters have been rehab'd and safe to release from detention. JMHO

Good Journey,

Terri