Dopamine Depletion Reduces Food-Related Reward Activity Independent of BMI
Open accessAbstract
Reward sensitivity and possible alterations in the dopaminergic-reward system are associated with obesity. We therefore aimed to investigate the influence of dopamine depletion on food-reward processing. We investigated 34 female subjects in a randomized placebo-controlled, within-subject design (body mass index (BMI)=27.0 kg/m(2) ±4.79 SD; age=28 years ±4.97 SD) using an acute phenylalanine/tyrosine depletion drink representing dopamine depletion and a balanced amino acid drink as the control condition. Brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging during a 'wanting' and 'liking' rating of food items. Eating behavior-related traits and states were assessed on the basis of questionnaires. Dopamine depletion resulted in reduced activation in the striatum and higher activation in the superior frontal gyrus independent of BMI. Brain activity during the wanting task activated a more distributed network than during the liking task. This network included gustatory, memory, visual, reward, and frontal regions. An interaction effect of dopamine depletion and the wanting/liking task was observed in the hippocampus. The interaction with the covariate BMI was significant in motor and control regions but not in the striatum. Our results support the notion of altered brain activity in the reward and prefrontal network with blunted dopaminergic action during food-reward processing. This effect is, however, independent of BMI, which contradicts the reward-deficiency hypothesis. This hints to the hypothesis suggesting a different or more complex mechanism underlying the dopaminergic reward function in obesity.
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Compared to normal-weight control groups, those who have obesity have higher levels of reward-based eating.
“Some research has also suggested that, compared to normal-weight control groups, those who have obesity have higher levels of reward-based eating (45, 48–51).”
From Behavioral Interventions to Attenuate Driven Overeating and Weight Regain After Bariatric Surgery (2022) · cites this paper as [50]
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- Authors
- Frank, S., Veit, R., Sauer, H., Enck, P., Friederich, H.-C., Unholzer, T., Bauer, U.-M., Linder, K., Heni, M., Fritsche, A., & Preissl, H.
- Affiliations
- University of Tübingen (DE)
- German Center for Diabetes Research (DE)
- Universitätsklinikum Tübingen (DE)
- University Hospital Heidelberg (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Frank, Sabine
- ORCID
- Venue
- Neuropsychopharmacology
- Published
- 2015-10-09
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1551-1559
- ISSN
- 0893-133X (ISSN-L)
- 1740-634X
- PMC
- PMC4832016
- OpenAlex
- W2324696545
- Cited by
- 48
- References
- 70
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 5 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 2.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Neuropsychopharmacology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Site cant be reached (submittedVersion)
- PuSH - Publication Server of Helmholtz Zentrum München (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- European Commission (607310, FP7/2007)
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (01GI1332, 01GI1122F)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Regulation of Appetite and Obesity
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Keywords
- dopamine depletion, food reward, obesity, reward sensitivity, striatum, superior frontal gyrus, hippocampus, body mass index, dietary habits
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Amino Acids, Brain, Brain Chemistry, Corpus Striatum, Dopamine, Female, Food, Hippocampus, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Obesity, Reward, Body Mass Index, Single-Blind Method, Prefrontal Cortex, Young Adult, Functional Neuroimaging
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