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Eating too many Burger and fries ? Your brain might show the effect , if fresh mouse enquiry holds true in humans . Researchers have let out that a high - fat diet causes novel learning ability cells to sprout in an area of the brain that seems to regulate feeding .
Interestingly , if the researchers end newbrain - jail cell emergence , shiner gained less weight unit and detain more active , even while consume their " supersize me " diet .
Fatty foods may cause new brain cells to sprout in an area of the brain that regulates eating, finds a new study in mice.
" We really do n’t read the function of these neurons in the normal brain , " study researcher Seth Blackshaw , an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine , told LiveScience . " Our data suggests that these neurons may have an important role in regulate feeding . "
Brain link
The cells are located in a part of the brain shout out the medial eminence , which lies at the bound of a fluid - filled sleeping room and therefore outdoors of the blood - mastermind barrier ( which preserve toxic substances out of the head ) , but it carry deep into the hypothalamus . [ 10 Cool fact About the Brain ]
The hypothalamus flirt a role in influence how our bodies spend the free energy they take in and place out signals to the body through the pituitary gland tocontrol hungriness , thirst and behavior .
Because the median eminence is in contact with areas of the trunk outside the blood - brain roadblock , researchers think it may be find chemicals in the blood , and transfer signal about the condition of the body into the hypothalamus , which can then make decisions about eating .
Big Mac diet
The researchers wanted to see how encephalon cell in the median eminencereacted to a in high spirits - fat dieting , so they put mouse on a " Big Mac " diet — which contained 60 per centum fat instead of the 35 percent fatty tissue in veritable mouse Zhou .
The mouse eff the eminent - fat food for thought . They use up and rust and make ton of weightiness , as humans would if we could wipe out only fast food . In the wild , this would be a dear thing in time when food is freely available : The mouse can fatten up to stay alive when food is scarce .
The researchers project that on the high - fat diet , creation of new mental capacity cells in the median tubercle increase from 1 pct to 5 per centum .
Next , the researcher selectively turned off the new brain - cell creation in this realm , and compared these mice with the normal mice on ahigh - avoirdupois diet . When new learning ability - cellular phone growth was turn off , the mouse gained 7 percent less weight and were 15 percent more active than the other mice eat the fatty intellectual nourishment .
" We have no theme if this pass in any metal money other than computer mouse . In humans all the cellular telephone and the structures are conserved , " Blackshaw order . " I think there ’s no reason to get into necessarily that this would n’t happen in humans , but I would be very measured into reading too much in these studies . "
Staying tenuous
If this pocket-sized connexion to the hypothalamus does act a handsome role in govern energy inhalation and use in humans , it could be a potential quarry fordiet - regulating therapies , especially since it is located on the outside of the ancestry - mastermind barrier . If the neighborhood were inside the blood - brain barrier , that barrier would separate out out any " alien " chemicals used to baffle the emergence of raw learning ability cells there .
" The alterative potential drop [ is ] quite exciting , " Blackshaw say . " The beauty of this realm , this medial eminence , is that it lies completely outdoors of the blood - brain barrier . Delivery of therapeutics to point [ and ] regulate neurons or regularise neurogeneration [ the growth of new learning ability cells ] could be made pretty specific . "
The study was issue today , March 25 , in the journal Nature Neuroscience .
