\u201cWe\u2019ve known that insulin plays a role in telling us we\u2019re satiated after eating, but the mechanism by which this happens is unclear,\u201d says Stephanie Borgland, an assistant professor in UBC\u2019s Dept. of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the study\u2019s senior author.<\/p>\n In the new study published online this week in Nature Neuroscience,<\/em> Borgland and colleagues found that insulin \u2013 prompted by a sweetened, high-fat meal \u2013 affects the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain, which is responsible for reward-seeking behaviour. When insulin was applied to the VTA in mice, they no longer gravitated towards environments where food had been offered<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cInsulin dulls the synapses in this region of the brain and decreases our interest in seeking out food,\u201d says Borgland, \u201cwhich in turn causes us to pay less attention to food-related cues.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere has been a lot of discussion around the environmental factors of the obesity epidemic,\u201d Borgland adds, pointing to fast food advertising bans in Quebec, Norway, the U.K., Greece and Sweden.\u00a0\u201cThis study helps explain why pictures or other cues of food affect us less when we\u2019re satiated \u2013 and may help inform strategies to reduce environmental triggers of overeating.\u201d<\/p>\n The VTA has also been shown to be associated with addictive behaviours, including illicit drug use<\/strong>. Borgland says better understanding of the mechanism in this region of the brain could, in the long run, inform diagnosis and treatment.<\/p>\n The study is available at dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/nn.3321<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the UBC press release: New research from the University of British Columbia is shedding light on why enticing pictures of food affect us less when we\u2019re full. \u201cWe\u2019ve known… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,6],"tags":[42,208],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10293"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10366,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10293\/revisions\/10366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"steak_wine_dinner\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/steak_wine_dinner.jpg\")
New research from the University of British Columbia is shedding light on why enticing pictures of food affect us less when we\u2019re full<\/strong>.<\/p>\n