It’s an Anti-Depressant? –
Dec. 23, 2019 – Researchers trained rats to receive a “delicious, high-fat, high-sugar” pellet by pressing a lever. The rats had to wait 20 seconds before pressing the lever again. If they were quicker than this, they had to wait an additional 20 seconds. Then researchers then introduced an injection of melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH). This is a transmitter produced in the hypothalamus at the base of the brain, and previous research has shown it to play a role in impulsive behavior.
Using an advanced technique, the team activated an MCH neural pathway from the hypothalamus to the hippocampus, which is part of the brain linked to learning and memory. “There’s underlying physiology in your brain that is regulating your capacity to say no to impulsive eating,” says Emily Noble, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Foods and Nutrition at the University of Georgia, in Athens. “In experimental models, you can activate that circuitry and get a specific behavioral response.”
The researchers found that after the activation of the neural pathway, the rats pressed the lever more frequently, even though this would delay the delivery of the sugary pellet by 20 seconds — a less efficient means of getting a reward.
