Drinking behavior and the development of hypothalamic lesions from aspartame ingestion in water-restricted weanling mice.

This is an old paper but relevant to the current problems of obesity. In young water-restricted weanling rats the feeding of concentrated aspartame produced lesions in the arcuate nucleus, the area of the brain that controls appetite.
In older weaned rats aspartame decreased body weight but also had effects on the arcuate nucleus , where it decreased neuropeptide Y levels Beck et al, 2002
The concentrations of aspartame are high, but this heavily used sweetener is not without toxic effects that directly affect appetite and body weight, particularly in the young. As with many effects, this is likely to be modified by genes and other risk factors.  Its introduction to the market was fraught with contention Wikipedia
Risk factors: Childhood obesity:

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