Discover How One Bad Curry Can Put You Off For Life
Have you ever eaten something when you’re not feeling well? Often this results in going off that food for good.
Sussex Neuroscience researchers led by Dr Ildiko Kemenes set out to find out why this happens, and what the underlying mechanisms are.
By using snails who love feeding on sugar, they discovered that brain structures were altered when snails were subjected to aversive training.
They gently it a snail on the head when they ate sugar, and the snails quickly learned to avoid sugar altogether.
Effectively flicking a switch in the snail’s brain. Snails brains have a circuit that suppresses their response to food, to ensure that they don’t just eat anything.
When presented with food or sugar, this circuit is inhibited, and feeding can commence.
Snails are not as complex as humans, but the research offers a simple view of what might be happening in the human brain. This research could be useful in the treatment of eating disorders.
George Kemenes, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and a senior member of the investigator team concluded “In our research, the negative experience the snail had with the sugar could be likened to eating a bad takeaway curry which then puts us off that particular dish in future.
We believe that in a human brain, a similar switch could be happening where particular groups of neurons reverse their activity in line with the negative association of a particular food.”
