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hunger

·March 19, 2024·5 min read

Brain’s Food-Seeking Circuit Overrides Hunger Signals

Researchers identified a brain circuit in mice that drives them to seek food even when not hungry, focusing on a specific group of cells in the brainstem's periaqueductal gray (PAG) area. This discovery highlights how stimulating these cells causes mice to prefer high-calorie foods and engage in food-seeking behaviors, regardless of hunger.

Featured Neuroscience

·March 18, 2024·7 min read

Brain’s Motivation Mechanics: How Hunger Drives Goal Pursuit

Researchers unveiled how the brain's thalamus navigates hunger-driven motivation. Through innovative experiments with mice, the study explores the role of two distinct neuronal populations within the paraventricular nucleus (PVT), showing how they regulate actions towards achieving a goal, like foraging for food.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·December 28, 2023·6 min read

Eating with Your Eyes and Gut? How Your Brain Decides When to Eat

The science of eating behavior goes beyond hunger cues; it involves sensory stimuli, internal signals, and the gut-brain connection. External cues like food packaging and advertisements influence our eating decisions, but internal signals, such as hunger and fullness, play a profound role.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 16, 2023·8 min read

How Hunger Influences Decision-Making

A study in mice reveals that a hunger hormone produced in the gut directly affects the brain's hippocampus when an animal considers food choices. The research explores how hunger hormones impact neural activity and decision-making processes.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 24, 2023·6 min read

Hunger Games: Ghrelin and Brain Cells Dictate Feeding Behavior

A new study illuminates how the hormone ghrelin, released when hungry, influences feeding behavior in mice. Ghrelin activates specific neurons in the amygdala, a region primarily studied in the context of fear and reward, prompting food consumption and producing sensations of hunger and satisfaction.

This shows a person taking a photo of food.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·May 22, 2023·7 min read

Viewing Food Images Multiple Times Curbs Appetite

Viewing images of the same food item multiple times can lead to a feeling of fullness. The study found that when participants viewed the same food picture 30 times, they subsequently chose smaller portion sizes compared to those who saw the image just three times.

This shows a drawing of a brain lifting weights.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 20, 2023·5 min read

Exercise Heightens Brain’s Food Cue Reactivity

Exercise appears to amplify the brain's response to food cues, a new study reports. The researchers observed that running increased the reactivity of certain brain regions linked to attention, anticipation of reward, and memory. These changes occurred independently of overall alterations in brain blood flow.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 11, 2023·4 min read

Feeling Hungry? It Might Just Slow Aging

The sensation of hunger itself may slow aging. Researchers discovered that flies induced to feel hungry, either through diet or brain stimulation, lived longer.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 29, 2023·5 min read

New Pill Regulates Appetite by Modulating Ghrelin Release

A new pill, called FLASH, has been developed to regulate appetite without drugs or invasive procedures. Researchers designed the pill to deliver electrical impulses to the stomach lining, modulating hunger-related gut hormones. The pill has been shown to affect the release of appetite hormone ghrelin in pig trials. FLASH could potentially treat various disorders related to metabolism and eating without pharmaceuticals or surgery. The researchers are now conducting additional preclinical testing and aim to start human trials within five years.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 11, 2023·3 min read

Jellyfish and Fruit Flies Shed Light on the Origin of Hunger Regulation

Researchers turn to jellyfish and fruitflies to explore the motivation to feed and shed new light on the mechanisms underlying feeding regulation.

This is a graphical abstract from the study

Featured Neuroscience

·February 23, 2023·5 min read

Leptin Helps Hungry Mice Choose Sex Over Food

When their brains are stimulated with leptin, an appetite-suppressing hormone, hungry mice prioritize mating and interacting with mice of the opposite gender over eating.

Featured Neuroscience

·February 22, 2023·4 min read

Human Body Can Predict Mealtimes

Our bodies can predict the timing of regular meals, a new study reports. Additionally, a person's daily blood-glucose rhythms may be driven by meal size in addition to meal time.

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hunger

Brain’s Food-Seeking Circuit Overrides Hunger Signals

Brain’s Motivation Mechanics: How Hunger Drives Goal Pursuit

Eating with Your Eyes and Gut? How Your Brain Decides When to Eat

How Hunger Influences Decision-Making

Hunger Games: Ghrelin and Brain Cells Dictate Feeding Behavior

Viewing Food Images Multiple Times Curbs Appetite

Exercise Heightens Brain’s Food Cue Reactivity

Feeling Hungry? It Might Just Slow Aging

New Pill Regulates Appetite by Modulating Ghrelin Release

Jellyfish and Fruit Flies Shed Light on the Origin of Hunger Regulation

Leptin Helps Hungry Mice Choose Sex Over Food

Human Body Can Predict Mealtimes

How Scientists Cracked the Ketamine Code for Depression

Brain Prioritizes “Sound Offsets” During Hearing Repair

Glucose Levels Signal the Growth of Myelin

Why Your Brain “Dreams” Even When You’re Awake

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