Obesity is a growing global epidemic that stems from the increasing availability of highly-palatable foods and the consequent enhanced calorie consumption. Extensive research has shown that brain regions that are central to reward seeking modulate feeding and evidence linking obesity to pathology in such regions have recently started to accumulate. In this review we focus on the contribution of two major interconnected structures central to reward processing, the nucleus accumbens and the ventral pallidum, to obesity. We first review the known literature linking these structures to feeding behavior, then discuss recent advances connecting pathology in the nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum to obesity, and finally examine the similarities and differences between drug addiction and obesity in the context of these two structures. The understanding of how pathology in brain regions involved in reward seeking and consumption may drive obesity and how mechanistically similar obesity and addiction are, is only now starting to be revealed. We hope that future research will advance knowledge in the field and open new avenues to studying and treating obesity.

肥胖是一种日益严重的全球流行病，它源于越来越多的可口食品以及随之而来的卡路里消耗增加。广泛的研究表明，对寻求奖励至关重要的大脑区域调节进食和将肥胖与这些区域的病理联系起来的证据最近开始积累。在这篇综述中，我们关注奖励处理的核心两个主要相互关联的结构，伏隔核和腹侧苍白球对肥胖的贡献。我们首先回顾将这些结构与摄食行为联系起来的已知文献，然后讨论将伏隔核和腹侧苍白球的病理学与肥胖联系起来的最新进展，最后在这两种结构的背景下检查药物成瘾和肥胖之间的异同。对参与奖励寻求和消费的大脑区域的病理学如何驱动肥胖以及肥胖和成瘾的机制相似性的理解现在才开始被揭示。我们希望未来的研究将推进该领域的知识，并开辟研究和治疗肥胖的新途径。