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Today we report on the interesting study that shows the brains of obese people with diabetes react differently to images of fatty foods. In particular the areas associated with pleasure light up. It's so pronounced that the higher the fat content of the food in the picture the bigger the effect.

As we said on the programme the researchers are now looking to scan the brains of teenagers between 13 and 18 years old. Prospective subjects for the study can be obese, healthy or have type 2 diabetes. You also get to keep a scan of your brain when it's all over.

It does seem likely this effect is one reason some people find it hard to stick to restricted diets, even for the sake of their health. But is it caused by the diabetes, obesity or a more complex combination of factors?

Finally as some of you will have spotted the MMR scanner in our film is actually a non-working mock-up. It's used to get subjects used to a scanner and has the advantage that it doesn't produce a strong magnetic field. A real scanner would erase the electronics in our camera just miliseconds before wrenching it out of the camera operators hands!

If you want to take part in the the next study email Dr Arie Nouwen at the University of Birmingham; a.nouwen@bham.ac.uk

You can dowload the paper by clicking this link. Paper.pdf [240KB]