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The report, published in the August issue of The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal, found baseline dopamine levels were 50 percent lower and stimulated dopamine release was significantly attenuated in the brain reward systems of obesity-prone rats, compared with obesity-resistant rats.

Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston and colleagues said the mesolimbic system is a system of neurons in the brain that secretes dopamine, a neurotransmitter or chemical messenger, which mediates emotion and pleasure.

The release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the mesolimbic system is traditionally associated with euphoria and considered to be the major neurochemical signature of drug addiction, the researchers said.

"Defects in brain dopamine synthesis and release were evident in rats immediately after birth", Emmanuel Pothos said in a statement.

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