Scientists have found a 'dial' in the brain which controls feelings of hunger and consumption.
The tiny, sunflower-seed sized part is located right in the centre of the brain, and could have health uses in the future for targeted weight loss or people struggling with poor appetite.
It has the catchy name of the 'bed nucleus of the stria terminalis' (BNST), and scientists have identified that it could increase consumption in mice.
However, it was unknown whether specific tastes played a factor in its activity within the brain.
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So, to test this a team of scientists led by Charles Zuker at Colombia University imaged the brains of mice while they drank water.
The water was flavoured with different tastes - sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami.
They identified which parts of the brain become active in response to sweet tastes, and found that there were neurones that reacted to sweetness which were linked to the BNST.
When these neurones were 'deactivated', the scientists found that the mice didn't show any interest in the sweet water even if they were hungry.
However, there was also a reverse effect.
When the neurones were activated in mice that had been fed recently, so shouldn't have any drive to eat or drink, these mice wanted to drink all the different flavours of water, even the ones they normally didn't like.
The drive to eat was so strong that some of the mice even ingested plastic pellets.
Zuker said that the results “tell us that the BNST is functioning as something of a master ‘dial’ with bidirectional control”, adding: “If we can figure out how to turn that dial, it would give us some influence over things like body weight.”
At this point you're probably wondering what the point is of studying this 'dial' in mice's brains.
Well, it turns out that the BNST in mice is similar to that in humans, so there could be a potential way to get a similar reaction from a human brain.
This could have a variety of medical applications.
One key use could be when someone is undergoing a form of treatment which suppresses their appetite, such as for cancer.
It might sound obvious, but eating properly is crucial for keeping strong when someone is enduring such physically draining treatment as chemotherapy.
So, a drug which helps to stimulate appetite could be very useful in ensuring that patients are eating enough to keep as strong as they can.
And of course, a potential treatment could also go the other way and be used as an appetite suppressant, for example in weight loss treatment, including improving the results in treatments such as GLP-1 drug semaglutide.
It's early days yet, but the study has a lot of potential in the future.
The FOODbible Team