WIKIMEDIA, ALLEN INSTITUTE FOR BRAIN SCIENCE
Using marijuana can sometimes compel a person to scoff down large quantities of food. A mouse study published in Nature today (February 18) may reveal part of the reason why. Researchers have found that cannabinoid-induced bouts of “the munchies” occur in mice when the compounds subvert brain cells that normally produce an appetite-suppressing hormone and redirect them to produce an appetite stimulator.
“All evidence, based on manipulations of the functions of these neurons, was consistent with their role in suppressing appetite—until this [paper],” said neuroscientist Scott Sternson of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus in Ashuburn, Virginia, who was not involved in the study.
The cells in question, pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons, reside in the hypothalamus—the body’s homeostasis headquarters in the brain. When a ...
