Evidence of gender differences in the ability to inhibit brain activation elicited by food stimulation

doi:10.1073/pnas.0807423106

Evidence of gender differences in the ability to inhibit brain activation elicited by food stimulation

^aMedical Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, 11973;
^bDepartment of Psychiatry, Mt Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10029;
^cNIAAA/NIDA, Bethesda, MD, 20857;
^dDepartment of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794; and
^eSt. Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital, New York, NY 10025

Edited by Michael I. Posner, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, and approved December 4, 2008 (received for review August 1, 2008)

Abstract

Although impaired inhibitory control is linked to a broad spectrum of health problems, including obesity, the brain mechanism(s) underlying voluntary control of hunger are not well understood. We assessed the brain circuits involved in voluntary inhibition of hunger during food stimulation in 23 fasted men and women using PET and 2-deoxy-2[¹⁸F]fluoro-D-glucose (¹⁸FDG). In men, but not in women, food stimulation with inhibition significantly decreased activation in amygdala, hippocampus, insula, orbitofrontal cortex, and striatum, which are regions involved in emotional regulation, conditioning, and motivation. The suppressed activation of the orbitofrontal cortex with inhibition in men was associated with decreases in self-reports of hunger, which corroborates the involvement of this region in processing the conscious awareness of the drive to eat. This finding suggests a mechanism by which cognitive inhibition decreases the desire for food and implicates lower ability to suppress hunger in women as a contributing factor to gender differences in obesity.

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Footnotes

¹To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gjwang{at}bnl.gov
Author contributions: G.-J.W., N.D.V., and J.S.F. designed research; G.-J.W., F.T., M.J., and C.T.W. performed research; G.-J.W., Y.M., K.P., and W.Z. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; G.-J.W., N.D.V., Y.M., K.P., W.Z., C.T.W., P.K.T., A.G., A.B., and J.S.F. analyzed data; and G.-J.W., N.D.V., P.K.T., A.G., A.B., and J.S.F. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.