Leptin has powerful effect on reward center in the brain.

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M2 PRESSWIRE-27 September 2006-YALE UNIVERSITY: Leptin has powerful effect on reward center in the brain(C)1994-2006 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD RDATE:27092006 New Haven, Conn. -- Leptin, a hormone critical for normal food intake and metabolism, exerts a strong effect on appetite by acting in the mid-brain region as well as in the hypothalamus, according to a Yale School of Medicine study in Neuron.

"Finding that metabolic hormones directly regulate the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the mid-brain has profound implications for how researchers view the integration of metabolic signals in the brain," said the senior author, Ralph DiLeone, assistant professor of psychiatry. In this study the researchers demonstrated that leptin signaling, via its receptor,...