2023-11-29 10:09:18
A hunger hormone produced in the gut called ghrelin is able to directly influence the region of the brain responsible for our decision-making
Have you ever felt less focused at mealtime? You have undoubtedly directly incriminated, rightly you think, your brain. However, the answer might lie much lower in your body, at the level of your intestines. A small hormone, ghrelin, would indeed have the power to directly influence the pole of our brain responsible for our decision-making.
A recent study published in Neuron and relayed by Science and Future reports it. To draw conclusions, scientists launched an experiment on mice. The latter were equipped with a device that kept track of their neuronal activity using brain imaging, while being placed in an arena where food was located.
Only hunger counts
However, scientists noticed that if all the rodents went in search of food, only the hungry mice actually ate. When they were not hungry, a region of the hippocampus (part of the brain responsible for decision-making but also for memory), saw its activity increase near food.
“The mice that were not hungry examined the food but very rarely started eating. A bit like looking at a dish without really touching it when you have already eaten lunch just before. The mice that were hungry They changed their behavior to start eating, despite the fact that the food offered was exactly the same. We believe that the hippocampus, under the influence of high levels of hormoneswould be responsible for this change in attitude” explains Dr Andrew MacAskill of University College London.
A ghrelin in direct contact with our brain
The person responsible for this brain activity is called ghrelin. This hormone is produced in our gut when we feel hungry, lack of food. Then, released into our bloodstream, it feeds our organs including our brain to tell it to go find food.
“We already knew that ghrelin seems capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, but we did not know what role it played once it passed to the other side. This work shows for the first time that hippocampal neurons actually use ghrelin receptors to control their activity. We do not yet completely understand this mechanism, but it suggests that other hunger hormones also manage to interact with the brain,” concludes Dr. MacAskill.
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