BARCELONA, April 4 (Benin News) –
Researchers from the August Pi i Sunyer Institute for Biomedical Investigations (Idibaps) have identified the alterations in neuronal activity that cause food cravings in pregnant women.
The study, conducted on female mice and published in “Nature Metabolism”, concluded that the brain undergoes changes in the functional connections of reward circuits, taste and sensorimotor centers, explained in a statement on Monday.
Like pregnant women, female mice are more sensitive to sweets and develop compulsive calorie-consuming behaviors.
The researchers observed that the levels of dopamine (a key neurotransmitter in motivational or craving behaviors) and the activity of its D2R receptor increased in a region of the brain involved in the reward circuit, the nucleus accumbens.
“This finding suggests that pregnancy induces a complete reorganization of mesolimbic neural circuits,” said Roberta Haddad-Tóvolli, co-author of the paper.
In addition, the team showed that persistent food cravings have consequences for offspring: they affect their metabolism and the development of neural circuits that regulate food intake, leading to increased body weight, anxiety and eating disorders.
“Brief but recurrent behaviors like food cravings are enough to increase the psychological and metabolic vulnerability of offspring,” concluded co-author Marc Claret.
According to its authors, the study may help improve clinical nutrition guidelines for pregnant women to ensure adequate prenatal nutrition and prevent disease onset.