For our brain to control our actions, it requires to develop links in between various stimuli. It is basically controlled by a brain region called the dopaminergic midbrain. Does this modification our brain activity, our ability to find out associations, and thus our habits? Whether somebody is overweight or not also figures out how the brain learns to associate sensory signals and what inspiration is created.” While it is motivating that offered drugs have a positive effect on brain activity in obesity, it is alarming that changes in brain performance take place even in young individuals with obesity without other medical conditions.
Researchers at limit Planck Institute found that weight problems, defined by reduced insulin sensitivity, hinders the brains associative knowing capability. Nevertheless, a single dose of the anti-obesity drug liraglutide restored this ability, adjusting brain activity between obese and normal-weight individuals.
Liraglutide improves brain function in people with weight problems.
For our brain to control our actions, it requires to develop links in between various stimuli. For instance, it finds out to link a seemingly harmless visual hint to its possible outcome (like a red-hot hotplate indicating a threat of burning ones hand). This process helps our brain comprehend the effects of engaging with particular stimuli.
Associative knowing is the basis for forming neural connections and offers stimuli their inspirational force. It is essentially controlled by a brain region called the dopaminergic midbrain. This area has many receptors for the bodys indicating particles, such as insulin, and can therefore adjust our habits to the physiological needs of our body.
What occurs when the bodys insulin level of sensitivity is reduced due to obesity? Does this modification our brain activity, our capability to discover associations, and thus our habits? Scientists at limit Planck Institute for Metabolism Research have actually now determined how well the knowing of associations operates in individuals with typical body weight (high insulin sensitivity, 30 volunteers) and in individuals with weight problems (lowered insulin level of sensitivity, 24 volunteers), and if this learning process is affected by the anti-obesity drug liraglutide.
Low insulin sensitivity minimizes the brains capability to associate sensory stimuli.
At night, they injected the individuals with either the drug liraglutide or a placebo in the night. Liraglutide is a so-called GLP-1 agonist, which activates the GLP-1 receptor in the body, promoting insulin production and producing a feeling of satiety. It is frequently used to deal with weight problems and type 2 diabetes and is given as soon as a day.
The next morning, the topics were offered a learning task that permitted the scientists to determine how well associative discovering works. They found that the capability to associate sensory stimuli was less noticable in participants with obesity than in those of regular weight and that brain activity was decreased in the areas encoding this learning behavior.
After simply one dosage of liraglutide, individuals with obesity no longer revealed these problems, and no distinction in brain activity was seen between individuals with normal weight and weight problems. Simply put, the drug returned the brain activity to the state of normal-weight topics.
” These findings are of basic importance. We show here that basic behaviors such as associative learning depend not only on external environmental conditions but likewise on the bodys metabolic state. So, whether someone is obese or not also figures out how the brain finds out to associate sensory signals and what inspiration is created. The normalization we achieved with the drug in topics with weight problems, therefore, fits with studies showing that these drugs bring back a typical feeling of satiety, causing people to eat less and for that reason slim down,” states research study leader Marc Tittgemeyer from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research.
” While it is encouraging that offered drugs have a favorable impact on brain activity in obesity, it is worrying that modifications in brain performance happen even in young individuals with weight problems without other medical conditions. Weight problems prevention need to play a much greater role in our health care system in the future. Lifelong medication is the less favored alternative in comparison to primary prevention of obesity and associated problems,” states Ruth Hanßen, first author of the study and a physician at the University Hospital of Cologne.
Recommendation: “Liraglutide restores impaired associative learning in people with obesity” by Ruth Hanssen, Lionel Rigoux, Bojana Kuzmanovic, Sandra Iglesias, Alina C. Kretschmer, Marc Schlamann, Kerstin Albus, Sharmili Edwin Thanarajah, Tamara Sitnikow, Corina Melzer, Oliver A. Cornely, Jens C. Brüning and Marc Tittgemeyer, 17 August 2023, Nature Metabolism. DOI: 10.1038 / s42255-023-00859-y.
The research study was carried out at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research and supported by the CECAD Cluster of Excellence for Ageing Research at the University of Cologne and the University Hospital of Cologne.