Although many people think of eating disorders only affecting the body and it's images and perception, it actually has more of an effect on the brain of the sufferer than people think of. The brain is the most complex organism in our body; holding all of our thoughts, feelings, characteristics, and all aspects of our everyday life in an object that is only three pounds. It can carry out almost any action, and if necessary even bending the limits of capacity in order to survive.
People who suffer from eating disorders struggle with neurological impulses much more common than any individual. Binge eating especially revolves around problems with perception, depression, anxiety, and stress. All of these problems correlate with specific regions and pathways of the brain.
Areas of the Brain affected by Binge Eating:
People who suffer from eating disorders struggle with neurological impulses much more common than any individual. Binge eating especially revolves around problems with perception, depression, anxiety, and stress. All of these problems correlate with specific regions and pathways of the brain.
Areas of the Brain affected by Binge Eating:
- Insula- The insula in the brain is involved in consciousness and plays a role in diverse functions usually linked to emotion or the regulation of the body's homeostasis. These functions include perception, motor control, self-awareness, cognitive functioning, and interpersonal experience. For a person that suffers from binge eating the insulae within the brain may not be functioning properly in order to control perception values including self-awareness and processing internal experiences. This is where problems with realizing that binging is a serious problem for mental and physical health can be inhibited.
- Hypothalamus - The hypothalamus plays one of the most vital roles within the body, maintaining homeostasis. The hypothalamus regulates autonomic functions within the body ranging from regulating blood pressure and wake/sleep cycles to determining hunger and appetite. Within people that suffer from binge eating, the hypothalamus may not be functioning properly due to the inability for sufferers to control their eating habits or appetites. Normally during a binge one never feels full and continues until feeling grossly sick.
- Amygdala - The function of the amygdala is to regulate emotions and aggression. The amygdala also functions to control fear responses, the secretion of hormones and arousal for the formation of emotional memories. People who binge eat may have many problems with fear and especially their emotions. For example he or she might fear being made fun of because of their weight, fear people finding out about his/her binges, and also fear not being able to stop. This plays majorly into the facts that most binges are caused by fluctuating emotions that are uncontrollable.
- Anterior Cingulate Cortex - It is also involved in rational cognitive functions, such as reward anticipation, decision-making, empathy, impulse control, and emotion. This shows that any damage or malfunction of this cortex could lead to the characteristics of binge eating. This includes struggles with making the decision to begin a binge and then fight to finish. Emotions are unable to be controlled, along with most importantly the functions of relating poor body image issues and perceptions with even worse decision making skills.
- Nucleus Accumbens - The nucleus accumbens has a significant role in the cognitive processing of motivation, pleasure and reward and reinforcement learning, and hence has significant role in addiction. It plays a lesser role in fear and the placebo effect.This shows how any small alterations or dysfunction of this area of the brain leads to serious effects, including how during a binge the victim may feel at peace and not ready to stop, yet needs to be reminded of wrong doing by the other functioning areas of the body. This is one of the strong factors as to why addiction of eating and overeating occurs within the sufferers.
- Visual Cortex - The visual cortex deals with all aspects of visionary sightseeing and perception. People who binge eat may suffer from body image issues, therefore causing them to have strong emotions leading to binges. They may perceive their body as imperfect and may think that binging will somehow fix the problem.
- Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex- Along with regions of the brains such as the limbic system, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex may contribute to depression due to being involved with the disorder on an emotional level during the suppression stage. Since depression is one of the leading causes of eating disorders, including binge eating especially, it can be proven that people in a depressive state are more apt to binge eat. Binge eaters will fall into a domino effect of depressive states, which includes feeling insecure about their surroundings causing them to binge, then after the binge feeling disgusted by their self causing them to become more depressed and insecure.