Constant feeling of hungerThe study was conductedspecialists from the Brookhaven Laboratory of the US Department of Energy: neurobiologist Gene-Jack Wang and his assistants scanned the brains of 13 women and 10 men of normal weight three times using positron emission tomography (PET), while the subjects were offered tasty and aromatic food. Moreover, they could only look at it. As the tomogram showed, in both men and women, if they were "tempted" with food, "areas of the brain responsible for the control of emotions, behavior and motivation" light up. Representatives of both sexes, having previously ordered themselves not to react to food, subsequently noted that they were less hungry, compared with the state when they were not asked to consciously suppress their desire for food. But only in men did the desired coincide with the actual. "Even though the women reported feeling less hungry when they tried to suppress their cravings, their brains were still 'blazing' with activity in the areas that control appetite, unlike their male counterparts," Wang explains. This could explain, the researchers conclude, the unfortunate fact that women tend to overeat more often, prefer to eat to cope with stress, and also experience weight problems and eating disorders. The findings could help develop drugs to treat obesity, taking into account the discovered 'female weakness'. Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
