Bariatric Surgery Changes Brain Responses to Food: Study

Obese individuals undergo a brain alteration that makes them less addicted to food after having weight reduction surgery, finds a study.

Experts from the University of Missouri in Kansas City found weight loss procedures like bariatric surgery change brain responses to food making them less susceptible to over eating and gaining back the excess pounds. Their study observed changes in body weight in 15 participants who had undergone bariatric surgery and 16 of those following a traditional diet and exercise plan. All subjects were shown images of tempting high caloric foods like pizza and scientists recorded brain activities using MRI scans. The researchers also noted other variables like age, BMI levels and education, reports the Daily Mail.

The overall body weight lost by dieters and bariatric participants was 10.8 and 9.3 percent, respectively.

The scans revealed increased stimulation in prefrontal cortex of the brain, a region related to decision making, valuing things and controlling social behavior in dieters than those who had the weight loss surgery. The study explained that looking at the images of food induces temptations in people who have lost weight by monitoring unhealthy intake of junk food and exercising regularly. But participants who had laproscopic banding surgery were unaffected looking at the food images indicating that they lost their motivation to binge on fatty food.

"They're not as interested in eating. They're not as motivated by food," said Amanda Bruce, study author and psychologist at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the University of Kansas School of Medicine, reports the Daily Mail.

People who are trying to get rid of an unwanted bulge strive hard to avoid fattening food substances and are constantly thinking about it. This heightens their responses to food that they are not supposed to eat.

"The brain area that showed greater change in activation for the diet participants is an area that is associated with attentional processing, salience, how much you value something," said Bruce.

The authors write, "This study supports the notion that surgical weight loss patients undergo a 'forced' dietary restriction in avoiding discomfort that renders food cues to be less rewarding and less salient."

More information is available online in the Journal Obesity.