WEBVTT

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How do you know when you're hungry?

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You might feel your stomach rumbles,
you might feel a bit tired or irritated,

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and you suddenly might not be able to
stop thinking about food.

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Then when you eat, something is changing.

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Your stomach feels full,
you feel like you don't have to think

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about food as much anymore,
and you can just go on with your day.

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We already notice it,
but every meal involves a constant

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conversation between the body and the
brain.

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At the centre of that conversation is the
hypothalamus,

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which is a region deep down in the brain
that receives all these messages from the

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body and then knows whether we need food
or have had enough.

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It then speaks with brain areas involved
in reward and motivation to turn up our

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interest in food when we're hungry or
turn it down when we fall.

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But what happens when this conversation
gets out of sync?

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People who experience binge eating have
episodes in which they eat a large amount

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of food while experiencing a loss of
control,

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and this can be deeply distressing.

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Yet we know surprisingly little about the
body brain communication involved and in

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particular we do not understand the role
of the hypothalamus in this conversation.

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To investigate this,
we invited people who experienced binge

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eating and people who do not to the
University of Melbourne for brain scan.

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And we used a particular powerful brain
scanner,

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MRI scanner that allowed us to study the
hypothalamus in much greater detail than

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normally.

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We then investigated how the different
parts of the hypothalamus communicate

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with the rest of the brain and compare
this communication between the two groups

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and we've what we found was that
individuals who binge each showed several

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unusual communication pattern,
and one pattern particularly stood out.

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It involves communication between a part
of the hypothalamus and an area central

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to reward and motivation.

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And the stronger this communication was,
the more difficult it was for this person

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to resist and control their been cheating
behaviour.

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So what might this mean?

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Are the bodies messages about hunger and
fullness just becoming unclear and harder

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to hear?

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Or is the motivation and reward system
having more influence over the

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conversation?

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Well,
our results cannot answer these questions

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yet,
but they do support the idea that binge

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eating may involve differences in how the
hypothalamus works together with the

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reward and the motivation system.

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Next,
we will widen that picture by also

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investigating how signals carried in the
blood relate to this communication and

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what happens to the communication while
people taste food and experience stress.

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More than 50 million people live with an
eating disorder involve involving binge

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eating and the true number is slightly
higher.

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So the better we understand the biology,
the closer we move towards more effective

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treatment and away from the stigma that
binge eating is just a lack of willpower.

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It is a really complex condition and we
only just began listening to the body

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brain communication involved.