"It sounds like a joke. Someone suffers a stroke -- or a brain tumor or a traumatic head injury -- and is suddenly transformed into a gustatory hedonist.
Indeed, Zurich neuropsychologist Marianne Regard wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t stumbled across the first signs of this "gourmand syndrome" herself, 8 years ago. Since then, she and Geneva University neurologist Theodor Landis have tallied 36 Swiss patients who, after sustaining sudden-onset damage to the brain -- usually in the right frontal region -- developed a preoccupation with fine foods.
This is no simple, newfound appreciation of gourmet fare, she and Landis report in the May Neurology, but an intense, consuming passion for food -- addictionlike cravings for their taste, an inordinate interest in their appearance, a savoring of trips to shop for ingredients, and delight in the memory of particular restaurant experiences.
What their findings don’t indicate, Landis says, is the site of some specialized food center in the brain. Instead, he and others argue, gourmand syndrome and a host of seemingly unrelated passions may serve as a window into the brain -- both in terms of diagnosing injury and in understanding its normal function. In fact, neurologist Jeffrey Cummings of the University of California, Los Angeles suspects such behavioral fallout of brain injury may be fairly common but largely overlooked, precisely because neither the patient nor the physician tends to view the change as negative.
From political settings to table settings
The first victim of gourmand syndrome -- or beneficiary, as the case may be -- was a political journalist who had never been particularly concerned about what he ate. He amiably consumed whatever his wife put before him. When he occasionally ate out, he exhibited no particular preference for one type of food over another.
Following a stroke, however, he at once began carping about the hospital’s meals and reported thinking of little but good-tasting food prepared and served in a nice restaurant.
In time, Regard asked the patient to record his thoughts each day. It was in going over them that she realized his interest in food had developed into an obsession. His diary was riddled with observations, like "it is time for a real hearty dinner, e.g., a good sausage with hash browns; or some spaghetti bolognese; or risotto and a breaded cutlet, nicely decorated; or a scallop of game in cream sauce with spätzle [a starchy, pasta-like side dish]."
Now describing himself as a connoisseur, he lamented being "dried up here, just like in the desert. Where is the next oasis, with date trees and lamb roast or couscous and mint tea, the Moroccan way -- real fresh?"
Four months later, when the man was fit to return to work, his old job awaited him. However, the preoccupation with food had overtaken his once-consuming enthusiasm for politics. So he resigned his job as a political reporter and became a columnist on fine dining. His food fixation even carried into his personal life, Regard and Landis report. For instance, his family found that the only way to pique his interest was to talk about food. Moreover, the Swiss scientists note, the man’s "desires for meals prepared at home became more precise and exotic."
more:
Science News Online - Food for Thought - 6/7/97 "Gourmand syndrome": eating passion associated with right anterior lesions -- Regard and Landis 48 (5): 1185 -- Neurology
"Gourmand syndrome": eating passion associated with right anterior lesions
M Regard and T Landis
University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland.
Neurology, Vol 48, Issue 5 1185-1190, Copyright © 1997 by American Academy of Neurology
"We present a new benign eating disorder associated with lesions involving parts of the right anterior cerebral hemisphere. This "gourmand" syndrome describes a preoccupation with food and a preference for fine eating. Two exemplary case reports illustrate this new syndrome. Analysis of the clinical and anatomical data of 36 patients who displayed this behavior revealed, in 34, a strong association with lesion location in the right anterior part of the brain involving cortical areas, basal ganglia, or limbic structures. Our finding provides further evidence of a correlation between right hemispheric damage, eating, and other impulse control disorders. We conjecture that the serotonergic system subserves different functions in the left and right hemisphere. "
"Gourmand syndrome" 
) 
brain trama is quite serious 
