{"id":55233,"date":"2025-06-13T10:06:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T10:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/psychologydictionary.ae\/scientists-identify-brain-glitch-that-fuels-overeating\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T10:06:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T10:06:00","slug":"scientists-identify-brain-glitch-that-fuels-overeating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychologydictionary.ae\/fr\/scientists-identify-brain-glitch-that-fuels-overeating\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Identify Brain \u201cGlitch\u201d That Fuels Overeating"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Researchers<\/strong> have uncovered a cluster of <strong>neurons in the brain<\/strong> responsible for storing <strong>\u201cmeal memories\u201d<\/strong> detailed recollections of when and what we eat. Published in <em>Nature Communications<\/em>, the study shows that disrupting these <strong>meal memory neurons<\/strong> can lead to overeating, offering insights into potential new strategies for managing <strong>obesity<\/strong> and <strong>eating disorders<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These specialized neurons, located in the <strong>ventral hippocampus<\/strong>, generate what are called <strong>meal engrams<\/strong>\u2014biological traces that encode <strong>food-related experiences<\/strong>, including the time and setting of meals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA meal engram functions like a <strong>neural database<\/strong>, storing detailed information about your eating experience,\u201d explains Professor Scott Kanoski, lead author from the University of Southern California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why This Matters<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>People with <strong>memory impairments<\/strong>, such as those with <strong>dementia<\/strong>, often overeat because they forget they\u2019ve recently had a meal. Likewise, <strong>distracted eating<\/strong> (like eating while scrolling or watching TV) may weaken these <strong>engrams<\/strong>, making it harder for the brain to \u201clog\u201d the meal properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study found that <strong>rats<\/strong> formed these <strong>engrams<\/strong> during natural pauses between bites, moments when the brain processes contextual information. When attention is disrupted, <strong>engrams<\/strong> become fragmented or incomplete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe brain fails to encode the meal properly,\u201d said Dr. Lea Decarie-Spain, co-author of the study, \u201cwhich can lead to a false sense of continued hunger\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How It Works<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Using advanced imaging tools, scientists monitored how <strong>meal memories<\/strong> formed in real-time. When they damaged the <strong>hippocampal meal memory neurons<\/strong>, rats forgot the locations of meals but retained other kinds of memory, proving this is a <strong>specialized memory system<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These neurons also communicate with the <strong>lateral hypothalamus<\/strong>, a region that controls <strong>hunger<\/strong>. Disrupting this connection caused rats to overeat, highlighting the link between <strong>memory and appetite<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Implications<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>This discovery could reshape how we treat <strong>obesity<\/strong>. Rather than focusing only on food quantity or calorie restriction, therapies might aim to <strong>strengthen meal-related memory formation<\/strong>, helping the brain \u201cremember\u201d satiety more effectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers have uncovered a cluster of neurons in the brain responsible for storing \u201cmeal memories\u201d detailed recollections of when and what we eat. Published in Nature Communications, the study shows that disrupting these meal memory neurons can lead to overeating, offering insights into potential new strategies for managing obesity and eating disorders. These specialized neurons, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-de-presse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologydictionary.ae\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologydictionary.ae\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologydictionary.ae\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologydictionary.ae\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologydictionary.ae\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/psychologydictionary.ae\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologydictionary.ae\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologydictionary.ae\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologydictionary.ae\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologydictionary.ae\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}