Obesity Gene Mediates Kids' Brain Response to Food Ads Reward center was more active in kids with genetic risk

The study focused on the fat-mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene, and it used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine the nucleus accumbens, a region of the brain associated with reward and eating behavior, said senior author Diane Gilbert-Diamond, ScD, of Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., and colleagues. When watching fast food commercials, brain activity in the nucleus accumbens of children with two copies of the high-risk FTO allele was significantly higher than in children with only one copy or no copy (P<0.01), Gilbert-Diamond and colleagues reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/Obesity/62181?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2016-12-21&eun=g721819d0r&pos=3