{"id":21079,"date":"2025-04-26T09:51:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T09:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/what-nearly-brainless-rodents-know-about-weight-loss-and-hunger\/"},"modified":"2025-04-26T09:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T09:51:07","slug":"what-nearly-brainless-rodents-know-about-weight-loss-and-hunger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/what-nearly-brainless-rodents-know-about-weight-loss-and-hunger\/","title":{"rendered":"What Nearly Brainless Rodents Know About Weight Loss and Hunger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Do we really have free will when it comes to eating? It\u2019s a vexing question that is at the heart of why so many people find it so difficult to stick to a diet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To get answers, one neuroscientist, Harvey J. Grill of the University of Pennsylvania, turned to rats and asked what would happen if he removed all of their brains except their brainstems. The brainstem controls basic functions like heart rate and breathing. But the animals could not smell, could not see, could not remember.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Would they know when they had consumed enough calories?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To find out, Dr. Grill dripped liquid food into their mouths.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhen they reached a stopping point, they allowed the food to drain out of their mouths,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Those studies, initiated decades ago, were a starting point for a body of research that has continually surprised scientists and driven home that how full animals feel has nothing to do with consciousness. The work has gained more relevance as scientists puzzle out how exactly the new drugs that cause weight loss, commonly called <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/17\/health\/weight-loss-drugs-obesity-ozempic-wegovy.html\" title=\"\">GLP-1s and including Ozempic<\/a>, affect the brain\u2019s eating-control systems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The story that is emerging does not explain why some people get obese and others do not. Instead, it offers clues about what makes us start eating, and when we stop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While most of the studies were in rodents, it defies belief to think that humans are somehow different, said Dr. Jeffrey Friedman, an obesity researcher at Rockefeller University in New York. Humans, he said, are subject to billions of years of evolution leading to elaborate neural pathways that control when to eat and when to stop eating.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As they have probed how eating is controlled, researchers learned that the brain is steadily getting signals that hint at how calorically dense a food is. There\u2019s a certain amount of calories that the body needs, and these signals make sure the body gets them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The process begins before a lab animal takes a single bite. Just the sight of food spurs neurons to anticipate whether a lot of calories will be packed into that food. The neurons respond more strongly to a food like peanut butter \u2014 loaded with calories \u2014 than to a low-calorie one like mouse chow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The next control point occurs when the animal tastes the food: Neurons <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/37993711\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">calculate the caloric density again from signals<\/a> sent from the mouth to the brainstem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Finally, when the food makes its way to the gut, a new set of signals to the brain lets the neurons again ascertain the caloric content.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And it is actually the calorie content that the gut assesses, as Zachary Knight, a neuroscientist at the University of California San Francisco, learned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He saw this when he directly infused three types of food into the stomachs of mice. One infusion was of fatty food, another of carbohydrates and the third of protein. Each infusion had the same number of calories.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In each case, the message to the brain was the same: The neurons were signaling the amount of energy, in the form of calories, and not the source of the calories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When the brain determines enough calories were consumed, neurons send a signal to stop eating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Knight said these discoveries surprised him. He\u2019d always thought that the signal to stop eating would be \u201ca communication between the gut and the brain,\u201d he said. There would be a sensation of having a full stomach and a deliberate decision to stop eating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Using that reasoning, some dieters try to drink a big glass of water before a meal, or fill up on low-calorie foods, like celery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But those tricks have not worked for most people because they don\u2019t account for how the brain controls eating. In fact, Dr. Knight found that mice do not even send satiety signals to the brain <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-023-06758-2\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">when all they are getting is water<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is true that people can decide to eat even when they are sated, or can decide not to eat when they are trying to lose weight. And, Dr. Grill said, in an intact brain \u2014 not just a brainstem \u2014 other areas of the brain also exert control.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But, Dr. Friedman said, in the end the brain\u2019s controls typically override a person\u2019s conscious decisions about whether they feel a need to eat. He said, by analogy, you can hold your breath \u2014 but only for so long. And you can suppress a cough \u2014 but only up to a point.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Scott Sternson, a neuroscientist at the University of California in San Diego, agreed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere is a very large proportion of appetite control that is automatic,\u201d said Dr. Sternson, a co-founder of a startup company, Penguin Bio, that is developing obesity treatments. People can decide to eat or not at a given moment. But, he added, maintaining that sort of control uses a lot of mental resources.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cEventually, attention goes to other things and the automatic process will wind up dominating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As they probed the brain\u2019s eating-control systems, researchers were continually surprised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They learned, for example, about the brain\u2019s rapid response to just the sight of food.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Neuroscientists had found in mice a few thousand neurons in the hypothalamus, deep in the brain, that responded to hunger. But how are they regulated? They knew from previous studies that fasting turned these hunger neurons on and that the neurons were less active when an animal was well fed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Their theory was that the neurons were responding to the body\u2019s fat stores. When fat stores were low \u2014 as happens when an animal fasts, for example \u2014 levels of leptin, a hormone released from fat, also are low. That would turn the hunger neurons on. As an animal eats, its fat stores are replenished, leptin levels go up, and the neurons, it was assumed, would quiet down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The whole system was thought to respond only slowly to the state of energy storage in the body.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But then three groups of researchers, independently led by Dr. Knight, Dr. Sternson and Mark Andermann of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, examined the moment-to-moment activity of the hunger neurons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They began with hungry mice. Their hunger neurons were firing rapidly, a sign the animals needed food.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The surprise happened when the investigators showed the animals food.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cEven before the first bite of food, the activity of those neurons shut off,\u201d Dr. Knight said. \u201cThe neurons were making a prediction. The mouse looks at food. The mouse predicts how many calories it will eat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The more calorie-rich the food, the more neurons turn off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAll three labs were shocked,\u201d said Dr. Bradford B. Lowell, who worked with Dr. Andermann at Beth Israel Deaconess. \u201cIt was very unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Lowell then asked what might happen if he deliberately turned off the hunger neurons even though the mice hadn\u2019t had much to eat. Researchers can do this with genetic manipulations that mark neurons so they can turn them on and off with either a drug or with a blue light.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">These mice would not eat for hours, even with food right in front of them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Lowell and Dr. Sternson independently did the opposite experiment, turning the neurons on in mice that had just had a huge meal, the mouse equivalent of a Thanksgiving dinner. The animals were reclining, feeling stuffed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But, said Dr. Andermann, who repeated the experiment, when they turned the hunger neurons on, \u201cThe mouse gets up and eats another 10 to 15 percent of its body weight.\u201d He added, \u201cThe neurons are saying, \u2018Just focus on food.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Researchers continue to be amazed by what they are finding \u2014 layers of controls in the brain that ensure eating is rigorously regulated. And hints of new ways to develop drugs to control eating.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One line of evidence was discovered by Amber Alhadeff, a neuroscientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center and the University of Pennsylvania. She recently found <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/38987598\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">two separate groups of neurons<\/a> in the brainstem that respond to the GLP-1 obesity drugs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One group of neurons signaled that the animals have had enough to eat. The other group caused the rodent equivalent of nausea. The current obesity drugs hit both groups of neurons, she reports, which may be a factor in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/20\/well\/live\/ozempic-weight-loss-drugs.html\" title=\"\">the side effects<\/a> many feel. She proposes that it might be possible to develop drugs that hit the satiety neurons but not the nausea ones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Alexander Nectow, of Columbia University, has another surprise discovery. He identified a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/cell\/abstract\/S0092-8674(25)00047-9\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">group of neurons<\/a> in the brainstem that regulate how big a meal is desired, tracking each bite of food. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how they do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019ve been studying this brainstem region for a decade and a half,\u201d Dr. Nectow said, \u201cbut when we went and used all of our fancy tools, we found this population of neurons we had never studied.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He\u2019s now asking if the neurons could be targets for a class of weight loss drugs that could upstage the GLP-1s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThat would be really amazing,\u201d Dr. Nectow said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/26\/health\/hunger-brain-ozempic.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do we really have free will when it comes to eating? It\u2019s a vexing question that is at the heart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1068,6339,271,136,141,268,3775,142],"class_list":["post-21079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-2","tag-brain","tag-calories","tag-diet-and-nutrition","tag-glp-1-ras-drug","tag-obesity","tag-research","tag-rodents","tag-weight"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Nearly Brainless Rodents Know About Weight Loss and Hunger - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/what-nearly-brainless-rodents-know-about-weight-loss-and-hunger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Nearly Brainless Rodents Know About Weight Loss and Hunger - World News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do we really have free will when it comes to eating? 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