Distinctive striatal dopamine signaling after dieting and gastric bypass

• Palatable foods elicit striatal dopamine release to strongly influence feeding.
• Obesity is associated with aberrant striatal dopamine signaling.
• Imbalance in striatal dopamine signaling may promote post-dieting weight regain.
• Surgery may correct striatal dopamine signaling to modify fat reward value.

Highly palatable and/or calorically dense foods, such as those rich in fat, engage the striatum to govern and set complex behaviors. Striatal dopamine signaling has been implicated in hedonic feeding and the development of obesity. Dieting and bariatric surgery have markedly different outcomes on weight loss, yet how these interventions affect central homeostatic and food reward processing remains poorly understood. Here, we propose that dieting and gastric bypass produce distinct changes in peripheral factors with known roles in regulating energy homeostasis, resulting in differential modulation of nigrostriatal and mesolimbic dopaminergic reward circuits. Enhancement of intestinal fat metabolism after gastric bypass may also modify striatal dopamine signaling contributing to its unique long-term effects on feeding behavior and body weight in obese individuals.