According to a study published in the Brain Communication journal, women may be more susceptible to emotional eating than men. The study led by Arpana Gupta, an assistant professor and director of the Neuroimaging Core at the University of California revealed that there are brain signals associated with obesity that could be gender-specific and that different factors could be driving weight gain in men and women.
The study revealed that women with a high BMI showed changes in brain connectivity associated with greater anxiety and lower resilience, as compared to men in the same group. Gupta said that some of these changes occur in regions of the brain that “respond to food or food-associated cues,” in association with early life trauma. “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.” Further changes indicate that women with a high BMI may have difficulty “integrating emotions with action-directed goal planning,” Gupta wrote, which could result in greater “emotional overeating” when compared to men. This suggests that women could be more vulnerable to emotional and compulsive eating than men, and that this could be a strong driver for the development of obesity in women. In contrast, men’s eating behaviour seems to be influenced more by gut sensations than emotions.
For the study, 78 women and men with a body mass index were deemed overweight or obese, and 105 men and women with a lower BMI were selected. After completing questionnaires on childhood trauma, anxiety and depression symptoms, food addiction, sensitivity to headaches and dizziness, and personality traits, participants each underwent three MRIs to examine the connectivity between areas of the brain, its structure and functionality. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a technique that uses a magnetic field and computer-generated radio waves to create detailed images of the body.
In exploring a possible correlation between adverse life events, gender, race and obesity, Gupta is hoping to understand the link between gendered differences to stress, as well as eating disorders, and the effect of targeted interventions such as cognitive behavioural therapy, diet, lifestyle and increased exercise. This would help in the creation of personalised, tailored medical responses, versus the generalised approaches most commonly used now.