Evidence of Gender Differences in the Ability to Inhibit Brain Activation Elicited by Food Stimulation

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2009 Jan 24

PMID 19164587

Citations 97

Authors

Gene-Jack Wang

Nora D Volkow

Frank Telang

Millard Jayne

Yeming Ma

Kith Pradhan

Wei Zhu

Christopher T Wong

Panayotis K Thanos

Allan Geliebter

Anat Biegon

Joanna S Fowler

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Although impaired inhibitory control is linked to a broad spectrum of health problems, including obesity, the brain mechanism(s) underlying voluntary control of hunger are not well understood. We assessed the brain circuits involved in voluntary inhibition of hunger during food stimulation in 23 fasted men and women using PET and 2-deoxy-2[(18)F]fluoro-D-glucose ((18)FDG). In men, but not in women, food stimulation with inhibition significantly decreased activation in amygdala, hippocampus, insula, orbitofrontal cortex, and striatum, which are regions involved in emotional regulation, conditioning, and motivation. The suppressed activation of the orbitofrontal cortex with inhibition in men was associated with decreases in self-reports of hunger, which corroborates the involvement of this region in processing the conscious awareness of the drive to eat. This finding suggests a mechanism by which cognitive inhibition decreases the desire for food and implicates lower ability to suppress hunger in women as a contributing factor to gender differences in obesity.

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