Is Binge Eating Triggered by Neurochemical Changes in the Brain?

Carole Carson

Can neuroscience help us understand ourselves and our behavior? Why, for example, do we continue damaging behavior, such as binge eating, that we wish to stop? We are starting to piece together the answers to these and other questions through sophisticated studies of the brain.

In one such finding, published online on February 24, 2011, in the journal Obesity, scientists announced new evidence that the brain's reward and motivation circuits are linked to compulsive overeating. In binge eaters, the mere sight or smell of favorite foods triggers a spike in dopamine, the brain chemical linked to reward and motivation. The dopamine spike may play a role in triggering compulsive overeating.

According to study lead author Dr. Gene-Jack Wang, the dopamine response effectively primes the brain to seek the reward. This pattern is similar to the dopamine response observed in drug-addicted subjects.

The idea that simple willpower is sufficient to change behavior may be undermined by this and other findings on the brain’s involvement in compulsive eating behavior. Those who suffer from binge eating may gain relief knowing that their behavior isn’t a result of flawed character, and treatments may evolve from understanding the neurochemical dynamics of binge eating.

In the past, the notion that binge eating behavior had a neurological basis similar to that of drug addiction was regarded with skepticism; however, the results of this study are particularly credible. Dr. Wang, is a physician at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health through the intramural program of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism the General Clinical Research Center of Stony Brook University.

Stay tuned for more insights and research results.