New research manipulates neural connections to make mice "happy with bitterness"
June 01, 2018 Source: Xinhuanet
Window._bd_share_config={ "common":{ "bdSnsKey":{ },"bdText":"","bdMini":"2","bdMiniList":false,"bdPic":"","bdStyle":" 0","bdSize":"16"},"share":{ }};with(document)0[(getElementsByTagName('head')[0]||body).appendChild(createElement('script')) .src='http://bdimg.share.baidu.com/static/api/js/share.js?v=89860593.js?cdnversion='+~(-new Date()/36e5)];Changing the brain connection can make people "happy with hardship." American researchers have altered the mice's likes of sweetness and bitterness by manipulating the neural connections between the amygdala and the taste cortex in the emotional center of the brain.
Charles Zach, a professor of neuroscience at Columbia University in the United States, reported in the British journal Nature on the 30th that the brain can not only taste the taste, but also mobilize a series of neuron signals to associate it with pleasure, memory, emotions, etc. Together, the animal's ability to feel the taste and the likes and dislikes of the taste are two separate neurological functions.
The Zach team previously found that neurons that taste sweet, bitter, salty, sour, and fresh are distributed in different areas of the brain's taste cortex, while the amygdala, which is responsible for generating, recognizing, and regulating emotions, is connected to the taste cortex. The new study found that this zoning approach extends from the taste cortex to the corresponding amygdala region.
In animal experiments, the researchers focused on areas of the taste cortex that felt sweetness and bitterness and the corresponding amygdala area. The researchers cut off the neural connections between the amygdala and the taste cortex, but did not change the taste cortex function. It was found that although the mice could distinguish between sweetness and bitterness, they lost the corresponding emotional reactions, such as sweetness preference and aversion to bitterness.
Further experiments have found that human manipulation of the taste cortex feels the nerve connection between the sweet and bitter brain regions and the corresponding amygdala region, which may make the mice hate sweetness or like bitterness.
Wang Li, the first author of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher at Zach Labs, explained that it is like you took a bite of chocolate, but you are not happy. After a few mouthfuls, throw it aside. New research is expected to provide new strategies for the treatment of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. (Reporter Zhou Zhou)
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