Wang, G. J., Geliebter, A., Volkow, N. D., Telang, F. W., Logan, J., Jayne, M. C., Galanti, K., Selig, P. A., Han, H., Zhu, W., Wong, C. T., & Fowler, J. S. (2011). Enhanced striatal dopamine release during food stimulation in binge eating disorder. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 19
(8), 1601–1608. https://doi.org/10.1038/oby.2011.27
From the research article’s abstract: “Subjects with binge eating disorder (BED) regularly consume large amounts of food in short time periods. The neurobiology of BED is poorly understood. Brain dopamine, which regulates motivation for food intake, is likely to be involved. We assessed the involvement of brain dopamine in the motivation for food consumption in binge eaters. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans with [11C]raclopride were done in 10 obese BED and 8 obese subjects without BED. Changes in extracellular dopamine in the striatum in response to food stimulation in food-deprived subjects were evaluated after placebo and after oral methylphenidate (MPH), a drug that blocks the dopamine reuptake transporter and thus amplifies dopamine signals. Neither the neutral stimuli (with or without MPH) nor the food stimuli when given with placebo increased extracellular dopamine.