本期上一篇研究论文报告说，睡眠剥夺（失眠）会造成与对高热量食物的欲望相关的脑活动发生变化。这些发现让我们对支持失眠与肥胖之间存在一个的流行病学证据有了进一步认识。

工业化国家肥胖的急剧增加据说与这些国家人们睡眠时间持续减少有关。人们一般认为，失眠会增强食欲，但我们对能够解释这一效应的机制却不是*了解。Matthew Walker及其同事利用脑成像来研究让失眠者看不同热量食物的图片时他们的反应。他们发现，失眠者在与吃的动机相关的脑区域中活动较大，而在评价食物刺激的脑区域中活动降低，这导致对高热量食物的欲望增强。

虽然还需要进一步研究来了解为什么失眠对这些脑区域有影响，但作者希望这些发现将能帮助改进公共卫生政策。

推荐的英文摘要

The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain

Stephanie M. Greer,  Andrea N. Goldstein  & Matthew P. Walker

Epidemiological evidence supports a link between sleep loss and obesity. However, the detrimental impact of sleep deprivation on central brain mechanisms governing appetitive food desire remains unknown. Here we report that sleep deprivation significantly decreases activity in appetitive evaluation regions within the human frontal cortex and insular cortex during food desirability choices, combined with a converse amplification of activity within the amygdala. Moreover, this bi-directional change in the profile of brain activity is further associated with a significant increase in the desire for weight-gain promoting high-calorie foods following sleep deprivation, the extent of which is predicted by the subjective severity of sleep loss across participants. These findings provide an explanatory brain mechanism by which insufficient sleep may lead to the development/maintenance of obesity through diminished activity in higher-order cortical evaluation regions, combined with excess subcortical limbic responsivity, resulting in the selection of foods most capable of triggering weight-gain.