WASHINGTON – A new study finds higher levels of the hormone ghrelin that comes from the stomach, which stimulates appetite, predicts a better preference for less immediate cash prizes over greater delayed cash prizes. The results of the study will be presented at ENDO 2021, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.
This research includes groundbreaking evidence in humans that ghrelin, the so-called “hunger hormone”, influences money decisions, said co-researcher Franziska Plessow, Ph.D. .D., Professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston. . She said recent research results in rodents suggested that ghrelin may play a role in emergency choices and behavior.
“Our results indicate that ghrelin may play a broader role than previously recognized in human reward-related behaviors and decision-making, such as money choices,” said Plessow. encourage future research on its role in food-independent human thought and behavior. “
Ghrelin signals the brain for the need to eat and can alter brain pathways that control reward processing. Levels of ghrelin vary throughout the day, depending on the amount of food and individual metabolism.
This study included 84 female participants ages 10 to 22 years: 50 with a low-weight eating disorder, such as anorexia nervosa, and 34 healthy control participants. Plessow’s research team tested blood levels of total ghrelin before and after a normal diet that was the same for all participants, who were pre-employed. After the meal, participants experimented with thoughtful financial decisions, known as the delay mitigation action. They were asked to make a series of choices to indicate which option they would prefer for an immediate cash prize or a larger cash amount with a delay, for example, $ 20 today or $ 80 in 14 days.
Healthy girls and young women with higher ghrelin levels were more likely to choose the direct cash prize but less than waiting for a larger amount of money, the researchers said. This option reflects more readily available options, Plessow said.
The relationship between ghrelin level and money choices was absent in age-matched participants with low-weight eating disorder. People are known to be against this eating disorder against ghrelin, and Plessow said their discovery may be another sign of a disconnect between ghrelin signaling and behavior in this population.
The study received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Charles A. King Trust Research Fellowship Award to Plessow. Naila Shiraliyeva, MD, a former researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital, will present the findings of the study at the meeting.
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