Open AccessNeural Correlates of Anti-appetite Medications: An fMRI Meta-analysis
Author(s) -
Andy Wai Kan Yeung
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
current neuropharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.955
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1875-6190
pISSN - 1570-159X
DOI - 10.2174/1570159x19666210914142227
Subject(s) - meta analysis , neuroimaging , insula , appetite , medicine , craving , functional magnetic resonance imaging , functional neuroimaging , population , brain activity and meditation , clinical psychology , neuroscience , psychology , psychiatry , electroencephalography , environmental health , addiction
Food craving is a health issue for a considerable proportion of the general population.Medications have been introduced to alleviate the craving or reduce the appetite via a neuropharmacologicalapproach. However, the underlying cerebral processing of the medications was largely unknown.This study aimed to meta-analyze existing neuroimaging findings. PubMed, Web of Science,and Scopus were searched to identify relevant publications. Original studies that reportedbrain imaging findings using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were initially included.The reported coordinates of brain activation available from the studies were extracted and metaanalyzedwith the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) approach via the software GingerALE.The overall analysis pooling data from 24 studies showed that the right claustrum and insula werethe targeted sites of altered cerebral processing of food cues by the medications. Subgroup analysispooling data from 11 studies showed that these sites had reduced activity levels under medicationscompared to placebo. The location of this significant cluster partially overlapped with that attributableto affective value processing of food cues in a prior meta-analysis. No brain regions were found tohave increased activity levels by medications. These neural correlates may help explain the physiologicaleffect of food consumption by anti-appetite and anti-obesity medications.