Deep Brain Stimulation for the Treatment of Binge Eating: Mechanisms and Preclinical Models

The prevalence of obesity continues to rise despite advances in behavioral, pharmacological, and surgical treatments. This is likely in part due to the overabundance of highly caloric food, which has extremely rewarding properties associated with dopaminergic neurotransmission in the ventral striatum where the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is located. The NAc has been repeatedly implicated in reward-seeking disorders, including binge eating, a common feature of obesity. Altered expression of dopaminergic receptors in the NAc has been associated with binge eating both in animals and humans. The application of deep brain stimulation (DBS) to the NAc to suppress binge eating in mice may further implicate the dopamine system in aberrant eating behavior. Molecular, biochemical, and optogenetic studies of the mechanism of DBS may also shed light on future treatment strategies for binge eating. Furthermore, given that DBS is a commonly used surgical therapy for multiple neurological disorders, this work may also pave the way for expanding the application of DBS to obesity.