The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain

Current epidemiological evidence points to a potential connection between obesity and sleep deprivation. It is unknown, meanwhile, how sleep deprivation affects the brain systems controlling the appetitive food urge in the central nervous system. In this study by Greer, Goldstein & Walker (2013), the authors noted that sleep deprivation causes a substantial reduction in activity in the human insular cortex and frontal cortex areas involved in appetitive appraisal governing food choices based on attractiveness while increasing activity in the amygdala. Furthermore, after sleep deprivation, there is a significant increase in the desire for high-calorie, weight-gain-promoting foods; the degree of this increase is predicted by the subjective rating of the severity of participants’ sleep loss. These findings are further linked to this bidirectional change in the profile of brain activity. The authors comment on how the study findings offer an explanation for the brain mechanism by which sleep deprivation may contribute to the onset and maintenance of obesity by increasing subcortical limbic responsivity and reducing activity in higher-order cortical evaluation regions, which in turn influences the choice of foods that are probably cause weight gain. [NPID: Obesity, sleep deprivation]

Year: 2013

Reference: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3259