A study published in the International Journal of Obesity suggests that obese children may overeat because they are slimmer than the More cravings for sugar.

Researchers studied 23 children between the ages of 8 and 12, 10 of whom were obese and the others were of normal weight. In the study, the children were given a fifth of a teaspoon of water mixed with table sugar and asked to swirl it around in their mouths with their eyes closed, while focus on its taste.

They found that neurons in the insular cortex and amygdala, brain regions involved in taste, motivation, and reward, in obese children, had a major role in giving abnormally active when sugar water is available. Notably, they do not show any high brain cell activity in the striatum, which is also a response and reward circuitry part of other studies, striatum activity has been linked to obesity in adults. But the striatum doesn’t fully develop until adolescence.

The researchers believe that their scans document for the first time the early development of the food reward circuit in young children. An elevated sense of “food reward,” including being motivated by food and feeling good about it, may mean that some children have Brain circuits, tend to crave more sugar throughout their lives.