|
|
|
|
|
With More Hunger Comes More Risk Taking
|
|
|
장바울
|
2014-03-22 00:55:25, 조회 : 1,757 |
|
|
With More Hunger Comes More Risk Taking
Fruit flies and people both take more risks when hungry. Researchers at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology found that, when fruit flies go without food, their brains' wiring undergoes certain changes that alter the flies' perceptions of danger. The flies will consequently resort to measures that well-fed flies would not.
Fruit flies, like us, cannot breathe carbon dioxide. So if they perceive the gas, they typically flee. But rotting fruits and plants that the flies feed on emit carbon dioxide, too, and this forces the flies to weigh need for food against need to avoid danger. The Max Planck researchers presented flies with several environments in which carbon dioxide was present. In a few of these environments, there was also the smell of food. The hungry flies braved the carbon dioxide more frequently and more quickly than flies that had been fed.
Then the researchers identified a \"projection neuron\" that conveys information about carbon dioxide to a region within the fly brain linked to learning and behavior patterns (based on learned associations). In hungry flies, this neuron is also crucial in triggering flight from danger. Well-fed flies, however, perceive carbon dioxide risks through other nerve pathways. Thus, the flies' brains rely on different neurons depending on hunger level.
While humans' brains are, of course, immensely more complex than those of flies, we, too, show increased risk-taking with more hunger. A separate study concluded that hungry test subjects took more financial risks than did their well-fed counterparts. —Rick Docksai
Source: The Max Planck Institute
. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
선교운동소개
나눔의광장 