Research explains why dementiament and consumption of meals in front of a screen lead to consuming excessive quantity of food.
Have you ever noticed that if you dinner losing you on social mediado you end up eating much more than necessary? A search published on Nature Communications could explain this and other forms of oreatinga consumption of food higher than need.
A specific population of brain cells seems in fact specialized in keeping a precise trace of memories relating to meals. When these cells do not work, for example because of a dementia, or they do not work properly (because we are distracted), we tend to eat in excessive quantities.
A complete database of meals consumed
Working with rats in the laboratory, scientists from the University of Southern California have discovered that, during meals, the neurons of the ventral region of the hippocampus (a crucial structure for learning and consolidation of memories) become more active: they form specialized mnestics (“engram”) With all the relevant information on that food consumption experience.
“A engramma It is the physical track that a memory leaves in the brain. The engrams of meals work as sophisticated biological databases that memorize different types of information, such as the place and time when it has eaten, “explains Scott Kanoski, professor of biological sciences at the Californian university and among the authors of the study.
How the memory of meals works
Scientists exploited advanced visualization techniques to observe in real time how memories relating to meals in the brain of the rats were formed. They discovered two things: the first is that the population of cerebral cells identified is specialized exclusively in keeping track of data relating to consummate food. Not surprisingly, when the researchers selectively eliminated those neurons, the rats accused problems in remembering where food was located, but they kept a normal spatial memory for all tasks not relating to meals.
The second is that the neurons that recall meals communicate with the lateral region of the hypothalamus, a brain area that controls appetite and food behaviors. When this connection between hippocampus and hypothalamus It was interrupted, the rats tended to eat too much and not to remember the experiences of previous meals.
Forget about food: because they are distracted or sick
The discovery could explain why people suffering from various forms of dementia or brain injuries that affect the aforementioned areas, they tend to eat irregularly Or even if they have already done so, and often have excessive food consumption problems. Their coding system of meals memories does not work as it should. In addition, the study helps to better understand why eating absently, for example in front of the mobile phone or TV, worst the memory of the meals consumed and lead to eating more than necessary.
The engrams of meals are formed in fact during the short breaks between one bite and anotherwhen the rats raise the muzzle from the food to explore the environment in which they find themselves and “realize” what is happening. If we do not allow our brain to do the same, because we keep it busy with continuous and not very relevant stimuli, Let’s cancel these moments of awareness which serve the hippocampus neurons to record the totality of the experience.
Anti-obesity therapies
Finally, the study could provide new strategies to combat obesity, which provide for Improve the memory of the meals consumed and exploit it to regulate food behavior.
