JUNK FOOD JUNKIES
Scientist Paul Johnson of the Scripps Research Institute and his team did just that. But their science experiment was no fiction. They had a serious goal: to try to understand how parts of the brain play a role in obesity.
The scientists observed that the more junk food the rats ate, the more they wanted to eat – a behaviour very similar to that of rats addicted to heroin, a dangerous drug. Johnson told Science News the experiment shows that the brain chemistry of obesity and drug addiction may be quite similar.
In their experiment, Johnson and his team studied the “pleasure centre” of rats’ brains. The pleasure centre is a complicated network of nerve cells. Together, these cells work as the body’s reward system. If the animal exercises or eats, the cells reward the animal by releasing chemicals into the body that make it feel good. And when the body feels good, the animal – or person – will want to repeat the model of behaviour again.
Pleasure centres can release these chemicals in less healthy ways, too. Drugs like heroin can cause the pleasurable chemicals to be released.
For the experiment, Johnson fed foods like cheesecake, bacon and Ho Hos to one group of rats. These foods are all high in calories and high in fat. Another group of rats received a regular, nutritious diet. The rats that ate junk food started to eat more and more.
“They’re taking in twice the amount of calories as the control rats”, says Paul Kenny, also at the Scripps Research Institute. Kenny worked with Johnson on the study.
Kenny and Johnson wanted to know what was going on in the brains of rats that were overeating. To find out, they came up with a simple reward system. They first devised a way to deliver a small electrical charge to the rats’ brains. This electrical charge would stimulate the pleasure centres to release pleasure-causing chemicals. The rats could
control how much stimulation – and how much pleasure – they received by running on a wheel. The more the rat ran, the more pleasure it received.
The rats that had been eating junk food started running more and more. This behaviour suggested that the junk-food-eating rats needed more brain stimulation to feel good compared with rats on a normal diet. In other words, their pleasure centres were becoming less sensitive and the junk food didn’t make them feel good unless they ate more and more. The same process happens in the brains of drug addicts. As the pleasure centre becomes numb, the addict has to consume more of the drug to feel good.
“They lose control”, Kenny says. “This is the hallmark of addiction”.
Kenny and Johnson also found out that the effects are hard to reverse. After they took away the junk food and offered the rats a nutritious diet, the fat rats refused to eat. “They starve themselves for two weeks afterward”, Kenny says.
Experiments like this one could help scientists understand how chemicals in the brain contribute to obesity. With that information, they may be able to help people avoid obesity – and all of its health problems – in the first place. Not bad for a bunch of rats, with Ho Hos in their paws.
6. The aim of the research was to find out the connection between
A the brain’s function and obesity.
В the functions of the brain parts.
С the intakes of food and being obese.
D the body’s function and the brain’s activity.
7. While carrying out the experiment the scientists understood that
A the rats refused to eat junk food when they were given heroin.
В eating junk food led to drug addiction.
(No Ratings Yet)