The Study
Bed nucleus of the stria terminalis connectivity during food cue and taste processing under stress
This study didn't prove that stress makes people eat more — it just showed that when people feel stressed, their brain changes how different parts talk to each other when they see or taste food. It's like noticing that your phone gets hot when you play a game — it doesn't mean the game broke your phone, just that they happened together.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
When you're stressed, your brain changes how it talks to itself about food—especially tasty treats.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 556 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1This means under stress, your brain treats all food like it's super rewarding—even boring stuff—making you more likely to overeat junk food to feel better.
- 2Stress reduces communication from the BNST (a stress hub) to brain areas that judge food value (OFC) and reward (NAcc).
- 3It also makes the brain less able to tell the difference between chocolate milk and water.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Nature Communications
Year
2026
Authors
E. Guerrero-Hreins, Matthew D. Greaves, Po-Han Kung, Bradford A. Moffat, R. Glarin, Stuart B. Murray, B. J. Harrison, P. Sumithran, R. M. Brown, Trevor Steward
Related Content
Claims (6)
Eating highly palatable foods triggers a brain reward system involving dopamine, and this system becomes active when a person experiences stress or negative emotions.
Changes in the strength of neural connections between the BNST and orbitofrontal cortex during exposure to food cues are linked to how much a person's stress levels change in response to those cues.
When healthy adults experience acute stress while tasting something, the neural connection between the brain region processing bodily sensations and the region controlling stress responses becomes weaker.
Acute stress decreases the difference in brain activity patterns when viewing chocolate milk versus water in the BNST region.
When healthy adults experience acute psychological stress, the communication between the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and the nucleus accumbens, orbitofrontal cortex, and dorsal mid-insula decreases during exposure to food cues.
When a person experiences acute stress, the communication between two brain regions—the nucleus accumbens and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis—becomes stronger specifically when they see or think about rewarding food.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.