WASHINGTON: Drink a milkshake and the
pleasure center in your brain gets a hit of happy, unless you are
overweight.

It sounds counterintuitive. But US scientists who watched
young women savor milkshakes inside a brain scanner concluded that when the
brain doesn’t sense enough gratification from food, people may overeat to
compensate.

The small but first-of-a-kind study even could predict
who would pile on pounds during the next year: Those who harbored a gene that
made their brain’s yum factor even more sluggish.

“The
more blunted your response to the milkshake taste, the more likely you are to
gain weight,” said Dr Eric Stice, a scientist at the Oregon Research
Institute who led the work, which was published in the journal
Science.

Scientists have long known that genetics also play a major
role in obesity, and one big culprit is thought to be dopamine, the brain
chemical that is key to sensing pleasure. Eating can also temporarily boost
dopamine levels.