What does this mean for people with obesity?
"It means they may experience more cravings than the average person when presented with high-calorie foods -- that is those high in fat and/or sugar -- leading them to eat more of these foods," said Dr. Goldstone.
To conduct their study, researchers evaluated how two genetic variants near genes called FTO and DRD2 alter brain response in participants who were asked to look at pictures of either high-calorie or low-calorie foods and rate how appealing they found the pictures. This was done using a brain scanning technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). All cohort participants who had an fMRI scan and DNA taken were included in the study. Those participants with a variant near the FTO gene, which predisposes a person to obesity, had greater activation when looking at high-calorie foods in a part of the brain called the orbitofrontal cortex. They also found these foods more appealing, which was not seen for low-calorie foods.