Overall, they found that adolescent girls with greater BMI showed increased reward region activation in response to food images. (scientificamerican.com)
But some appear to have fewer dopamine D2 receptors in key reward regions of the brain than other people — much like drug addicts. (scientificamerican.com)
In a novel study using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Stice's team tested whether individual differences in reward region responsivity predicted overweight / obesity onset among initially healthy weight adolescents and substance use onset among initially abstinent adolescents. (sciencedaily.com)