A new study from UCLA researchers finds sex-specific brain signals that appear to confirm that different drivers lead men and women to develop obesity. The study, appearing in the peer-reviewed journal Brain Communications, combined data from several modes of MRI with patients’ clinical features and personal histories to identify sex-specific mechanisms in the brain underlying obesity.
“We found differences in several of the brain’s networks associated with early life adversity, mental health quality, and the way sensory stimulation is experienced. The resulting brain signatures, based on multimodal MRI imaging, may help us more precisely tailor obesity interventions based on an individual’s sex,” said Arpana Gupta, PhD, a brain, obesity and microbiome researcher at UCLA and senior author of the study .
Gupta said this is believed to be the first study using a data-driven approach to predict sex-specific obesity status based on multimodal brain signatures. It builds on an earlier UCLA study in which Gupta and colleagues examined sex-related differences in the prominence and signaling of brain regions in obesity. In addition to finding that emotion-related and compulsive eating appear to play a major role in obesity in women, that study showed that men’s eating behavior tends to be affected by a greater awareness of gut sensations and visceral responses – those related to abdominal discomfort.
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This research was supported by a CURE/ CTSI Pilot and Feasibility Study.
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