The following news release is being issued today by the U.S.
Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory. The release
can be viewed electronically at:
http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2004/bnlpr041904.htm

**************
News Release
number: 04-42
for release: Monday, April 19, 2004
contact: Dennis Tartaglia, 212-481-7000,
Karen McNulty Walsh, 631 344-8350, or

Exposure to Food Increases Brain Metabolism

Same area of brain affected as seen in drug-addiction studies

UPTON, NY -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven
National Laboratory have produced new evidence that brain circuits
involved in drug addiction are also activated by the desire for food.
The mere display of food -- smelling and tasting favorite foods
without actually eating them -- causes increases in metabolism
throughout the brain. Increases of metabolism in the right
orbitofrontal cortex, a brain region that controls drive and
pleasure, also correlate strongly with self-reports of desire for
food and hunger.

"These results could explain the deleterious effects of constant
exposure to food stimuli, such as advertising, candy machines, food
channels, and food displays in stores," says Brookhaven physician
Gene-Jack Wang, the study's lead author. "The high sensitivity of
this brain region to food stimuli, coupled with the huge number and
variety of these stimuli in the environment, likely contributes to
the epidemic of obesity in this country." The study appears in the
April 2004 issue of NeuroImage.

Brookhaven scientists have conducted previous research showing that
the right orbitofrontal cortex is involved in compulsive behaviors
characteristic of addictive states, and that this brain region is
activated when addicted individuals crave drugs such as cocaine
(http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/1...lpr010199.html).

They have also shown that food stimulation, as done in this study,
increases levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in pleasure
and reward, in the brain¹s dorsal striatum
(http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2002/bnlpr052002.htm).

Additionally, to better understand the relationship of the dopamine
system to obesity, they looked at the brain circuits of obese
individuals and found that, like drug addicts, these individuals had
fewer dopamine receptors than normal control subjects
(http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2001/bnlpr020101.htm).

In the new study, the scientists looked at how 12 food-deprived,
normal-weight study volunteers responded to their favorite foods by
using positron emission tomography (PET), a brain-scanning technique,
to measure brain metabolism during food stimulation. Each volunteer
was given an injection containing a radiotracer, a radioactive
chemical "tag" designed to "light up" activated areas of the brain.
The PET camera picks up the radioactive signal and measures the level
and location of the tracer. Study subjects' brains were scanned twice
over a two-day period, with and without food stimulation. Subjects
were asked not to eat for 17 to 19 hours prior to the study.

Volunteers were presented with foods that they had reported as their
favorites on a pre-study questionnaire. The food was warmed to
enhance its smell and the subjects were allowed to view and smell it,
as well as taste a small portion placed on their tongues with a
cotton swab. They were also asked to describe the foods as they
tasted them. As a control, during scans when food stimulation was not
used, subjects were asked to describe in great detail their family
genealogy while they were presented with non-food related items. They
were allowed to smell these items and they had a cotton swab dipped
in water placed on their tongues to mimic the food-stimulation
condition. Study participants were also instructed to describe, on a
scale of 1 to 10, whether they felt hungry or desired food at the
start of the study and at five-minute intervals for a total of 45
minutes.

The researchers found that food stimulation significantly increased
whole brain metabolism. Metabolism was higher in all regions of the
brain examined, except for the occipital cortex, which controls
vision and would not be affected. The areas most affected were the
superior temporal, anterior insula, and orbitofrontal cortices. Food
stimulation also resulted in increases in self-reports of hunger and
desire for food. Increases in metabolism in the right orbitofrontal
cortex were the ones that were most significantly correlated with
increased reports of hunger.

This study was funded by the Office of Biological and Environmental
Research within the U.S. Department of Energy¹s Office of Science and
the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Scientists from NIDA,
Stony Brook University, and St. Luke¹s/Roosevelt Hospital in New York
City contributed to the study.

One of the ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by
the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE),
Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical,
biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy
technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and
operates major scientific facilities available to university,
industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and
managed for DOE's Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates,
a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the
largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a
nonprofit, applied science and technology organization. Visit
Brookhaven Lab's electronic newsroom for links, news archives,
graphics, and mo http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom
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