Researchers at Wake Forest University School Of Medicine have shown that two specific networks in the brain can strongly influence how successful their weight loss journey can be,
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The study was looking to understand if the degree of weight loss post six months of a behaviour-based intervention was linked to connectivity with two functional networks FN1 and FN2 in a group of older adults with obesity.?
To the unaware, functional brain networks are areas of the brain that are working together in sync. For this study, 71 participants enrolled in a randomised weight-loss clinical trial underwent MRI scans before their study to see if FN1 and FN2 would be predictive of weight loss and how.?
Participants were scanned first in a resting state and then again, after receiving a food-cue task. After the end of six months, the data was further analysed to compare the link between the baseline networks and the change in participants' weight.?
Researchers found that during the resting state, the relationship of brain function in FN1 that involves sensory and motor skills was significantly linked with six-month weight loss. Looking at the food-cue state, the six-month loss was considerably linked with FN2 which is known to include self-regulation and the ability to focus attention.
Researchers say that two different brain network biases are linked to the degree of success with weight loss -- during the resting state, there is a sensory-motor motivational bias to pursue food whereas when processing food cues, there is a deficit in the executive control and attention network.
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The study's principal investigator Dr Jonathan Burdette, professor of radiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, explains, "These findings show that the brain network properties of people who were less successful at weight loss were different from folks who were more successful. Some people have a stronger unconscious sensory-motor bias to pursue food, while others appear to have less. In a society of food abundance with food cues everywhere, this information can help explain why some people have such difficulty in taking off excess weight and maintaining it."
Burdette added, "Our findings provide further insight into complex functional circuits in the brain so we now have a mechanistic understanding of why people aren't losing weight. In theory, if you know more about urges and control, we will be able to tailor therapies to an individual as opposed to treating everyone the same."
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