Here`s the reason why teenagers are at high risk of obesity!

New York: Does your adolescent kid eat lots of high calorie food? If yes, then don't blame them as they may not be able to control the urge for junk foods such as burgers, pizzas and french fries due to an impairment in a brain region linked to self-regulation, according to a new study.

The study has revealed that teenagers, who are at an increased risk of obesity, have progressively less neural activity in circuits of the brain that support self-regulation and attention.

Bradley Peterson, Professor at the University of Southern California said,"The study establishes that risk for obesity isn't driven exclusively by the absence or presence of urges to eat high-calorie foods, but also, and perhaps most importantly, by the ability to control those urges."

For the study, the team used fMRI to observe relationship between neurological activity and risk for obesity in overweight compared with lean adolescents.

In adolescents who were obese or who were lean but at high familial risk for obesity, they observed less activation in attention and self-regulation circuits.

Brain circuits that support attention and self-regulation showed the greatest activation in lean/low-risk adolescents, less activity in lean/high-risk participants and least activation in the overweight/obese group.

The finding was reported in the journal NeuroImage.

(With IANS inputs)