Research
Mixed
Stronger baseline connectivity between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) predicts greater weight loss following a dietary intervention, suggesting that this neural pattern facilitates dietary impulse control.
If you have strong self-regulation capabilities (reflected in dlPFC-vmPFC connectivity), you may respond better to standard dietary interventions. For those with weaker connectivity, targeted training in self-regulation and impulse control might be necessary to achieve similar weight loss results.
ModerateSupportsLOW confidence
Among individuals with overweight and obesity, connectivity between dlPFC and vmPFC at baseline has been associated with the tendency to select the option to consume a larger portion of a preferred meal at a later time rather than a small portion immediately... stronger dlPFC–vmPFC connectivity and selection of larger delayed meals at baseline predicted weight loss following a dietary intervention (Weygandt et al., 2013).
Why this rating
Based on a single study (Weygandt et al., 2013) cited in the review.
Source
A review of the relationship between eating behavior, obesity and functional brain network organization
Shannon D. Donofry et al. · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · 2019
DOI 10.1093/scan/nsz085
narrative_reviewCited 104×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Obesity is associated with disrupted functional brain network organization, specifically weakened connectivity in the executive control network (ECN) and enhanced connectivity in the salience (SN) and default mode networks (DMN), which correlates with impairments in self-regulation and reward valuation.Moderate
- Weight loss interventions, particularly meal replacement with reduced-calorie shakes, can rapidly modify functional brain connectivity, reducing the hyperconnectivity between reward-related regions (NAc, amygdala, OFC, insula) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in response to food cues.Moderate
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