His-and-Her Hunger Pangs: Gender affects the brain's response to food

Women have higher rates of obesity and eating disorders than men do, but scientists don't know why. New findings offer clues to the root of sex differences in eating behaviors. The study showed that men's and women's brains react differently to hunger, as well as to satiation.

This is the first research to document sex-specific brain activity related to eating, says study author Angelo Del Parigi of the Phoenix branch of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). The report appears in the June American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Using positron emission tomography (PET), Del Parigi and his colleagues at NIDDK monitored the brains of 22 men and 22