Chinese researchers find ‘obesity neurons’ in brains of fruit flies
Experiments find that the insects in normal conditions never overeat, but gorge themselves when specific centres are stimulated
Chinese scientists trying to understand human obesity are looking at a seemingly unlikely source to shed more light on the subject – the brain of the common fruit fly.
Experiments involving the thought processes of the insect, which controls how much it eats, could help yield reasons for what has become an acute health problem globally, and particularly so in modern China, the Chinese scientists said.
Many people imagine fruit flies are always hungry, considering how quickly they swarm over discarded food.
But a new study of the brain activity of Drosophila, the fly’s scientific name, by Beijing researchers reveals that the insect actually eats more “rationally” than some people.
Fruit flies studied in the experiment stopped eating once they were full – and almost never overate – according to their findings in a paper published in this month’s edition of the research journal, Nature Communications.