Reward System in Eating Disorders and Obesity

In relation to eating disorders and obesity, scientists are increasingly discussing not only the physiological but also the so-called hedonic hunger. The desire and pleasure for tasty food are mediated by the neural reward system. The recent development and improved availability of new technologies and methods for investigating the brain have provided new insights into the functioning of the reward system in humans and animals. In this article, the general reward processing will be briefly introduced, and current findings on the importance of the reward system for the psychopathology of eating disorders and obesity will be discussed in more detail.