For all those people who wonder why they tend to overeat despite being completely full, a new study has presented some answers, and blamed the workings of the brain and the so-called hunger hormone ghrelin. In a research conducted on mice, it was revealed that the hormone's working in the brain might lead to some people indulging in overeating of "pleasurable" food when they are already full from a meal.

"What we show is that there may be situations where we are driven to seek out and eat very rewarding foods, even if we're full, for no other reason than our brain tells us to", said study co-author Dr. Jeffrey Zigman. Dr. Zigman is an assistant professor of internal medicine and psychiatry at UT Southwestern.

Through previous studies, scientists have linked the ghrelin hormone to adding to the rewarding or pleasurable feelings a user gets from cocaine or alcohol.

Dr. Zigman and his team have now discovered that the hormone might also be responsible for increasing the specific rewarding effects of overeating.

Two standard behavioral tests among mice were conducted for the sake of the study, under various different situations, and conclusions were then drawn based on the data collected and observations made.