The effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on food craving and food intake in individuals affected by obesity and overweight: a mini review of the magnitude of the effects

Graziella Orrù; Valentina Cesari; Eleonora Malloggi; Ciro Conversano; Danilo Menicucci; Alessandro Rotondo; Cristina Scarpazza; Laura Marchi; Angelo Gemignani; Graziella Orrù; Valentina Cesari; Eleonora Malloggi; Ciro Conversano; Danilo Menicucci; Alessandro Rotondo; Cristina Scarpazza; Laura Marchi; Angelo Gemignani

doi:10.3934/Neuroscience.2022020

AIMS Neuroscience

2022, Volume 9, Issue 3: 358-372. doi: 10.3934/Neuroscience.2022020

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Mini review

The effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on food craving and food intake in individuals affected by obesity and overweight: a mini review of the magnitude of the effects

1.
Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, via Savi, 10, 56126, Pisa, Italy
2.
Department of Law, Criminal Law, University of Pisa, via Curtatone e Montanara, 15, 56126, Pisa, Italy
3.
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, Padova, 35131, Italy
4.
IRCCS S Camillo Hospital, Via Alberoni 70, 30126 Venezia, Italy
5.
Padova Neuroscience Centre, University of Padova, Via Giuseppe Orus 2, 35131 Padova, Italy

Received: 15 March 2022 Revised: 14 July 2022 Accepted: 20 July 2022 Published: 01 August 2022

Obesity represents one of the wellness diseases concurring to increase the incidence of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. One of the main perpetuating factors of obesity is food craving, which is characterized by an urgent desire to eat a large and various amount of food, regardless of calories requirement or satiety signals, and it might be addressed to the alteration of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity. Despite most of the gold-standard therapies focus on symptom treatment only, non-invasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) could help treat overeating by modulating specific neural pathways. The current systematic review was conducted to identify whether convergent evidence supporting the usefulness of tDCS to deal with food craving are present in the literature. The review was conducted by searching articles published up to January 1^st 2022 on MEDLINE, Scopus and PsycInfo databases. We included studies investigating the effects of tDCS on food craving in subjects affected by overweight and obesity. According to eligibility criteria, 5 articles were included. Results showed that tDCS targeting left DLPFC with unipolar montage induced ameliorating effects on food craving. Controversial results were shown for the other studies, that might be ascribable to the use of bipolar montage, and the choice of other target areas. Further investigations including expectancy effect control, larger sample sizes and follow-up are needed to support more robust conclusions. To conclude, tDCS combined with the use of psychoeducative intervention, diet and physical activity, might represents a potential to manage food craving in individuals with overweight and obesity.
- food craving,
- obesity,
- overweight,
- food intake regulation,
- tDCS
Citation: Graziella Orrù, Valentina Cesari, Eleonora Malloggi, Ciro Conversano, Danilo Menicucci, Alessandro Rotondo, Cristina Scarpazza, Laura Marchi, Angelo Gemignani. The effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on food craving and food intake in individuals affected by obesity and overweight: a mini review of the magnitude of the effects[J]. AIMS Neuroscience, 2022, 9(3): 358-372. doi: 10.3934/Neuroscience.2022020

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Abstract

Obesity represents one of the wellness diseases concurring to increase the incidence of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. One of the main perpetuating factors of obesity is food craving, which is characterized by an urgent desire to eat a large and various amount of food, regardless of calories requirement or satiety signals, and it might be addressed to the alteration of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity. Despite most of the gold-standard therapies focus on symptom treatment only, non-invasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) could help treat overeating by modulating specific neural pathways. The current systematic review was conducted to identify whether convergent evidence supporting the usefulness of tDCS to deal with food craving are present in the literature. The review was conducted by searching articles published up to January 1^st 2022 on MEDLINE, Scopus and PsycInfo databases. We included studies investigating the effects of tDCS on food craving in subjects affected by overweight and obesity. According to eligibility criteria, 5 articles were included. Results showed that tDCS targeting left DLPFC with unipolar montage induced ameliorating effects on food craving. Controversial results were shown for the other studies, that might be ascribable to the use of bipolar montage, and the choice of other target areas. Further investigations including expectancy effect control, larger sample sizes and follow-up are needed to support more robust conclusions. To conclude, tDCS combined with the use of psychoeducative intervention, diet and physical activity, might represents a potential to manage food craving in individuals with overweight and obesity.

Abbreviations

atDCS

anodal transcranial direct current stimulation

BMI

Body Mass Index

ctDCS

cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation

DLPFC

dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

lDLPFC

left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

PRISMA

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review

RCTs

randomized controlled trials

rDLPFC

right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

tDCS

transcranial direct current stimulation

VAS

visual analogue scale

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Author contributions

GO devised the main research topic and planned the literature search. GO conceived the conceptual ideas and proof outline. GO, CC, AR and LM drafted the first version of the manuscript; GO, VC, and EM drafted the second version of the manuscript; GO, VC, EM, DM, CS contributed to the data interpretation; GO, VC, EM, CC, DM, AR, CS and AG revised the manuscript critically. All authors gave the final approval for the version to be published.

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