The "hunger hormone" influences female financial decision-making

A new study concluded that the hormone ghrelin, which is derived from the stomach, or the so-called "hunger hormone", influences financial decision-making in females, as mentioned by Russia Today on its website.

The newspaper added that the study included 84 participants aged between 10 and 22 years, 50 of them suffering from an eating disorder associated with low weight, such as anorexia nervosa, and 34 healthy participants.

A research team affiliated with researcher Francesca Blissau, assistant professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, tested blood levels of total ghrelin before and after a standardized meal for all participants who had fasted beforehand.

After the meal, participants ran a hypothetical financial decision test, called a delay discounting task, and were asked to make a series of options to indicate their preference for a smaller immediate cash reward or a larger late sum of money, for example, $ 20 a day or $ 80 in 14 days. .

The researchers reported that healthy girls and young women with higher levels of ghrelin were more likely to choose the immediate cash reward that includes the smaller financial reward, rather than waiting for a larger amount of money.

This preference indicates more impulsive options, Pleso said.

The relationship between ghrelin level and monetary choices was absent in age-matched participants with an eating disorder associated with low weight.

People with this eating disorder are known to have ghrelin resistance.

Pleso said their finding may be another indication of the disconnect between ghrelin signals and behavior in this population.

Ghrelin indicates that the brain needs to eat and may alter brain pathways that control reward processing.

Ghrelin levels fluctuate throughout the day, depending on individual food intake and metabolism.