Neurons Anticipate Body’s Response to Food and Water
Using leading-edge technology, neuroscientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) gained new insight into the brain circuitry that regulates water and food intake. In a new study, the team of researchers monitored the activity of the neurons that secrete a hormone in response to ingesting food and water.
In their paper, published online in Neuron, the researchers demonstrated that a subset of neurons starts to prepare the body for an influx of water in the seconds before drinking begins. These neurons help regulate intake by anticipating the effects of drinking from the “top down,” rather than taking cues from the body.
“This study supports the view that when we suddenly detect the availability of food or water, our body starts to prepare itself within seconds for the upcoming bout of eating or drinking,” said co-corresponding author, Mark Andermann, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at BIDMC. “We predict that deficits in this ‘top-down’ control could lead to overshoots in eating or drinking, with many negative consequences.”
Paper:
http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(16)30859-5
Source & further reading:
http://www.bidmc.org/News/PRLandingPage/2016/December/Andermann-Neural-Activity-FoodWater.aspx
#neuroscience #foodintake #vasopressin
Corina Marinescu please cut me quite a bit of slack, I have been drinking quite a bit of Lagunitas Brown Shugga Ale for some time, but I wish that I could eat your brain. Yes. It is a zombie sort of post. Your brain is clearly a quite quite high quality one, so I want to eat your brain. Don't judge me. Of course this is silly fan boy stuff. It is just that this post, like many before are great. I don't have any normal way of expressing how great it is that you are in the world, so I am stepping right outside the rule book and doing something crazy. Please keep being you. Please keep posting great STEM stuff. Please keep being Corina Marinescu. Then I will eat your brain. Just sayin'.
ReplyDeleteCertainly a quality brain. Perhaps the secret is plenty of exercise (mental and physical) and the occasional doses of tiramisu.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how different brains are wired, perhaps it also effects how much people eat and how some don't seem to have an 'off' switch (or one with a time delay), while others the opposite is true - though that may be down psychological desire to 'look' a certain way (which can often be photoshopped anyway).