So difficult: choose chocolate-flavored shit or shit-flavored chocolate?

▎Editor of WuXi AppTec's content team There is such a weird question: chocolate-flavored shit vs.
shit-flavored chocolate, which one would you choose? Some people may analyze it from the perspective of the world view, while others may extend to emotional issues
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 Some scientists recently conducted a real food experiment, analyzing how the brain makes decisions when faced with this difficult choice
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Of course, they do it with laboratory animals
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 Take a look at the results of their research just published in Nature Communications, a subsidiary of Nature
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 In this study, scientists at Yale University prepared two foods for fruit flies at the same time
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The taste of fruit flies is a bit similar to that of humans.
They love sweet, high-calorie foods and don't like bitterness-bitterness often means poisonous and harmful
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 The food prepared by the researchers is high in calories and contains plenty of sugar, but it is also bitter because it contains quinine; the other is low in calories and contains less sugar, but does not contain bitter substances that fruit flies hate
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 So, how do fruit flies choose? Which one is delicious or full? How do their brains "think" when they make choices? Researchers used neuroimaging technology to track and record the activity of neurons in the brain of Drosophila
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 ▲Flies who are not too hungry (fast for 2 hours and 6 hours) are mostly willing to choose foods with less sugar but not bitter; after being hungry for a long time (fasting for 21 hours), more than half will choose high-sugar foods with bitter taste ( Image source: Reference [1]) In general, the choice of fruit flies depends on how hungry they are
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The more hungry you are, the more likely you are to endure the bitter taste and take in more calories
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However, further research shows that the true neural mechanism behind the choices made by fruit flies is more complicated
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According to the researchers, the sensory information such as taste and smell of fruit flies will be transmitted to the fan-shaped body area in the brain, where various information is integrated, and the final decision is made
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 Using new methods such as optogenetics and chemical connectomics, researchers have identified a special set of neurons in the sector
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The taste rejected by the fruit flies strongly inhibits the activity of these neurons, meaning that they are responsible for encoding the behavior of food choices
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Moreover, when new food options appear, the activity patterns of these neurons will undergo adaptive changes
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 ▲A group of neurons FBl6 was identified in the decision-making center sector of fruit flies to decide which food to eat (picture source: reference [1]).
What’s more interesting is that the researchers identified a group of neuropeptides and dopamine and other chemicals.
The upstream signal network composed of substances, when they artificially manipulate the nerve signals that enter the sector, can change the choices of fruit flies
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For example, after the neurons involved in metabolism are artificially reduced in activity, fruit flies tend to choose foods with better taste and less nutrition even when they are hungry
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 These results indicate that when the fruit fly’s little head is faced with difficult choices, the decision made not only considers whether the food tastes sweet or bitter (whether it is shit or chocolate), but also depends on existing experience (including The consequences of choice), the state of hunger, these information are all integrated into the sector
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 "This is a big feedback loop, not just a top-down decision
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" The research leader Professor Michael Nitabach concluded
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The choice of fruit flies also seems to inspire humans
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Professor Nitabach added: "This study provides a template to understand how hunger and internal emotional states affect our behavior
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" The researchers pointed out that neural activity in the human brain is also secreted by neuropeptides and the neurotransmitter dopamine.
Regulation, where dopamine is related to mood and sense of reward
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Changes in this neural network will change the brain's response to different types of food
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In other words, we think that we have made a conscious choice of food, and sometimes may be silently influenced by neurochemistry
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 Reference: [1] Preeti Sareenet al.
, (2021) A neuronal ensemble encoding adaptive choice during sensoryconflict in Drosophila.
Nature Communications.
Doi: https://doi.
org/10.
1038/s41467-021-24423-y[2] More filling? Tastes great? How flies, and maybe people, choosetheir food.
RetrievedJuly 6, 2021 from https://