By Alan Mozes
EmpowHer's HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, May 7 (HealthDay News) -- A new brain imaging study reveals that a gut hormone known for its appetite-promoting powers actually stimulates key reward centers in the brain to make food look more tasty and irresistible.

The feeding culprit is ghrelin, and the finding suggests that this hormone's so-called "hedonic effect" on the senses unfolds in the same brain regions that researchers have long-associated with drug addiction -- motivating people to eat even when there is no nutritional reason to do so.