Researchers hope an electric current will stop people with the eating disorder bulimia from having the urge to binge-eat and then punish their bodies.
A study in PLOS One says sending an electrical current into the part of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which some believe is involved in regulating behavior, reduced bulimic behavior in almost 40 people in a trial. It “suppressed the self-reported urge to binge-eat,” increased self-control and improved mood, according to the findings. The low current, sent into the brain through electrodes placed on the head, may be doing this by “normalising altered neural circuit activity.”
