The brain is getting ready for dinner.
Every evening, as we get ready for dinner, in addition to the routine behaviors of preparing the meal itself, we also prepare our bodies to cope with the upcoming meal. This could take the form of making restaurant reservations, changing into appropriate attire, washing hands, priming ourselves with an aperitif, or even consciously avoiding snacks as the meal approaches. A study by Johnstone and colleagues in this issue of Cell Metabolism (Johnstone et al., 2006) provides evidence that in parallel to our learned preparatory behaviors, our central nervous system is going through comparable motions as it gets ready for the anticipated meal.
Tschöp
Matthias H
MH
Department of Psychiatry, Obesity Research Center-Genome Research Institute, University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio 45237, USA.
Castaneda
Tamara R
TR
Woods
Stephen C
SC
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D013997:Time Factors
D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos