- The amygdala/hippocampus, insula, orbitofrontal cortex, and the striatum are most implicated in food addictions.
- These areas of the brain play key roles in learning the rewards associated with food, allocating attention and effort toward procuring food, setting incentive for food, and integrating internal homeostatic information about energy stores and gut contents.
- It is perhaps unsurprising then that they are the same areas of the brain that are associated with drug addiction.
References
- Blumenthal DM, Gold MS. Neurobiology of food addiction. Current opinion in clinical nutrition and metabolic care. 2010; 13, 359-365.
- Volkow ND, Wang GJ, Fowler JS, et al. Food and drug reward: overlapping circuits in human obesity and addiction. Current topics in behavioral neurosciences. 2012; 11:1-24.
