Structural changes in habit-forming brain circuitry linked to eating disorders

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University School of Medicine have teamed up to investigate the brain mechanisms at work when habit learning and binge eating behaviors converge. In the study, “Human habit neural circuitry may be perturbed in eating disorders,” published in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers found circuit-based mechanisms mediating habit formation implicated in habit-driven eating behavior; specifically, alterations in brain structures related to dopamine signaling.