UC BERKELEY (US) — We’re more likely to have an appetite for junk food when we’re sleep deprived and brain scans may help explain why.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers scanned the brains of 23 healthy young adults, first after a normal night’s sleep and then after a sleepless night. They found impaired activity in the sleep-deprived brain’s frontal lobe, which governs complex decision-making, but increased activity in deeper brain centers that respond to rewards.