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In Reply: Drs Bachman and Histon are conflating 2 distinct but important considerations. We are in agreement on the need for scientific work aimed at understanding the complex etiology of obesity and believe that this requires the formulation of a testable hypothesis that can lead to well-controlled experiments to try to falsify it. This was the aim of our Commentary: to describe a hypothesis that can account for a large amount of information from disparate fields, and that provides a novel and testable conceptualization of the causes of obesity.

Alternative hypotheses are surely possible, and Bachman and Histon suggest that a series of simpler and more practical reasons may explain the behaviors observed among obese persons. These reasons should be investigated as testable hypotheses. None of the studies they cite have specifically assessed the function of the right prefrontal cortex or included explicit decision-making tasks among their aims, and as . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD
apleone@bidmc.harvard.edu

Miguel Alonso-Alonso, MD, MPhil
Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation
Behavioral Neurology Unit
Department of Neurology
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Boston, Massachusetts

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Obesity and the Right Brain
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