Researcher says, "Men's brain fight food urges better ...

Gene-Jack Wang, who chairs the medical department at Brookhaven National Laboratory were surprised at the difference between the sexes in brain response to controlling food intake. [1]

"Even though the women said they were less hungry when trying to inhibit their response to the food, their brains were still firing away in the regions that control the drive to eat." [1]

Researchers flashed tasty food in front of men and women who hadn't eaten anything in at least 17 hours. Both were told to fight their hunger (cognitive inhibition), but only men showed a drop in activity in brain regions involved in emotion and motivation. [2]

Researchers used positron emission tomography (PET scans) to observe brain activity in 23 normal-weight people -- 13 women and 10 men. They asked the volunteers to choose their favorite food from a list that included fried chicken, lasagna, barbecued ribs, ice cream, or pizza. [2]

Then, 17-19 hours after their last meal, the volunteers had a brain scan while they looked at one of their favorites. They could smell the food as well as see it, and also were given a taste with a swab placed on their tongue. [2]

Volunteers had three brain scans: once with no instruction on how to react to the food, once after being told to suppress their desire for the food, and once with no food in front of them.[2]

For women, brain activity was about the same whether or not they had been asked to suppress their desire. For Men, they showed a distinctively different brain activity when they tried to suppress their urge. Men showed less activation in regions such as amygdala, hippocampus, insula, orbitofrontal cortex and striatum involved in "emotional regulation, conditioning, and motivation."[2]

The discovery may explain the higher obesity rate for women and girls. [1]

“There are only a few articles using cognitive inhibition to control emotion,” Dr. Wang said. “This is the first that investigates the effect of cognitive inhibition for desire for food.” [3]

Reference:
[1] Study: Favorite foods are hard for women to resist Associated Press January 19 2009
[2] Study: Men's brains fight food urges better CNNHealth.com January 19 2009
[3] Men Resist Tempting Food More Easily Than Women in Brain Study Bloomberg January 19 2009