The magazine of the european research area European Commission Copenhagen, a missed chance?

Morten Kringelbach

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 research

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eu No. 63 | APRIL 2010 

31

The pleasures of eating 

Kringelbach and his colleagues are also 

interested in the vital role played by food in 

survival and pleasure. As part of the research 

conducted in this area, they have identified 

a network of brain regions, again including 

the orbitofrontal cortex, which appears to drive 

us to seek the pleasure of eating. “An imbalance 

in this network would seem to be a likely cause 

of eating disorders”, says the researcher, who has 

also sought to understand why we always have 

a little room left for a dessert at the end of a meal 

even when we are full up. “We have found that 

the orbitofrontal cortex is primarily responsible 

and that its activity is linked to our subjective 

attraction to food.” In addition, researchers have 

shown that this region is involved in the subjec-

tive experience of all forms of pleasure, includ-

ing those provided by drugs, music and orgasms. 

“This all leads us to think that the orbitofrontal 

cortex may have a role to play in treating eating 

disorders and other addictive behaviour.”

Deep cerebral stimulation  

“Stimulating specific brain regions in animals 

or human beings may lead to immediate 

changes in the sensation of pleasure and desire.” 

Tipu Aziz, an Oxford University neurosur-

geon, has demonstrated that deep brain stim-

ulation in the grey matter significantly reduces 

pain in chronic pain patients. However, for 

such a discovery to be useful in the long term, 

we need to know how the stimulation affects 

the brain. Using magneto-encephalography, 

Morten Kringelbach’s team has examined 

closely the action of deep brain stimulation, 

observing a specific activation of the brain 

network involved in emotion. Here again, the 

orbitofrontal cortex is involved.

“What is particularly interesting in the con-

text of this project is that the same results 

have been observed in people suffering from 

depression.” Furthermore, deep brain stimulation 

can be used in treating many pathologies like 

dystonia, Parkinson’s disease, obsessive com-

pulsive disorders, palsy, etc. “For this technique 

to be effective, it is crucial for us to know the 

exact role of each brain region, and which 

region needs stimulating to alleviate the symp-

toms of a particular disease.”