Juliet Jacob 
ABUJA, Nigeria – A new study from the University of Pennsylvania has found that the obesity drug tirzepatide — marketed as Mounjaro and Zepbound — may help dampen the neural activity linked to compulsive food cravings, offering fresh insight into how the medication affects the brain.
The research involved individuals with severe obesity who experience “food noise” — intrusive, persistent thoughts about eating. Using implanted electrodes, scientists monitored electrical activity in the brain’s reward circuitry to identify patterns associated with intense cravings.
Amber Alhadeff, a neuroscientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, described the approach as a promising way to understand how medications influence craving-related brain signals.
“This is a great strategy to try and find a neural signature of food noise, and then understand how drugs can manipulate it,” she said.
The participants were part of a wider investigation into deep brain stimulation for compulsive eating, particularly among patients who have not responded to bariatric surgery or behavioural therapy. Electrodes were placed in the nucleus accumbens, a key reward-processing region that contains GLP-1 receptors — the same receptors targeted by tirzepatide.
In the first two participants, periods of strong food noise aligned with spikes in low-frequency brain activity, offering a measurable marker of overwhelming cravings.
A turning point came when a 60-year-old woman in the study began a high dose of tirzepatide for type 2 diabetes.
“We took advantage of this opportunity because of the excitement around these drugs,” said Casey Halpern, the neurosurgeon-scientist who led the study.
Researchers observed that tirzepatide appeared to reduce her food noise significantly — the first direct evidence in humans showing how GLP-1–based medications influence neural reward pathways.
Christian Hölscher, a neuroscientist at the Henan Academy of Innovations in Medical Science, said the findings shed light on why GLP-1 drugs can curb extreme cravings.
“GLP-1 plays a role in modulating reward here, so this study helps explain these drugs’ powerful effects,” he explained.
The results, published in Nature Medicine, could inform new treatments for compulsive eating and obesity, particularly for patients who struggle with intrusive food-related thoughts.
About the Author
Hussaini Ibrahim