"Bonus finding Casey Halpern, a neurosurgeon-scientist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and his colleagues did not set out to investigate the effects of obesity drugs on the brain. The team's goal was to test whether a type of deep brain stimulation - a therapy that involves delivering a weak electrical current directly into the brain - can help to reduce compulsive eating in people with obesity for whom treatments such as bariatric surgery haven't worked."
"The scientists set up a study in which participants had an electrode implanted into their nucleus accumbens, a region of the brain that is involved in feelings of reward. It also expresses the GLP-1 receptor, notes Christian Hölscher, a neuroscientist at the Henan Academy of Innovations in Medical Science in Zhengzhou, China, "so we know that GLP-1 plays a role in modulating reward here"."
Electrodes recorded changing electrical signals in the brain of a person with severe obesity who experienced persistent 'food noise' shortly after starting tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound). The recordings indicated suppression of brain activity patterns associated with food cravings. An implantable device placed in the nucleus accumbens both recorded activity and can deliver electrical stimulation. The nucleus accumbens expresses the GLP-1 receptor, linking GLP-1–mimicking drugs to modulation of reward-related brain circuits. The work originated from a trial testing deep brain stimulation as a therapy to reduce compulsive eating in people for whom bariatric surgery proved ineffective.
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