PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

This is your brain on fried eggs

New study shows saturated high-fat feeding can cause impairments in critical motivation brain pathway

2015-07-14
(Press-News.org) High-fat feeding can cause impairments in the functioning of the mesolimbic dopamine system, says Stephanie Fulton of the University of Montreal and the CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM.) This system is a critical brain pathway controlling motivation. Fulton's findings, published today in Neuropsychopharmacology, may have great health implications. "Our research shows that independent of weight gain and obesity, high-fat feeding can cause impairments in the functioning of the brain circuitry profoundly implicated in mood disorders, drug addiction, and overeating - several states and pathologies that impinge on motivation and hedonia," Fulton explained. Hedonia relates to a mental state of wellbeing. "Another key finding is that the effects of prolonged high-fat feeding to dampen the sensitivity of this brain reward system are specific to saturated fats - palm oil used in this study - but not monounsaturated fat such as the olive oil used in this study."

The research team obtained these findings by working with three groups of rats. The first group of rats was the control group: they were given a low-fat diet containing roughly equal amounts of monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids. The second group was given a monounsaturated high fat diet, of which 50% of the calories were from fat derived from olive oil. The third group was given a saturated high fat diet - again, 50% of the calories were from fat, but this time derived from palm oil. The high-fat diets were all the same in terms of sugars, proteins, fat content and caloric density, and the animals were free to eat as much or as little as they liked. After eight weeks, all of the rats still had comparable body weights and levels of insulin, leptin (which are major metabolic hormones) and relative glycemia.

At this time, the rats underwent a series of behavioural and biochemical tests known to be indicative of the functioning of rats' dopamine system. "We established that the rats on the palm diet had a significantly blunted dopamine function," said Cecile Hryhorczuk, the first author of the study. "Our research group and others hypothesize that this leads the brain to try to compensate by heightening reward-seeking behaviour, much like the phenomenon of drug tolerance where one has to increase the drug dose over time to get the same high. So, a person consuming too much saturated fat may then compensate a reduced reward experience by seeking out and consuming more high-fat and high-sugar foods to get the same level of pleasure or reward."

Fulton's study is the first of its kind to show that, regardless of weight changes, unrestrained intake of saturated fats can have negative effects on the controls of motivation by the brain. "As we were able to control for changes in body weight, hormones and glucose levels, we think that the fats may be affecting the dopamine system by a direct action in the brain," Fulton said. "We in fact have separate evidence that brain inflammation could be involved in this process, as it is evoked by saturated high-fat feeding, which will be presented in a future publication."

INFORMATION:

About this study: Stephanie Fulton and her colleagues published "Dampened mesolimbic dopamine function and signaling by saturated but not monounsaturated dietary lipids" in Neuropsychopharmacology on July 14, 2015. Stephanie Fulton, PhD, is a professor at the University of Montreal's Department of Nutrition while Cecile Hryhorczuk, MSc, is affiliated with the university's Department of Physiology. Both are researchers at the Montreal Diabetes Centre and the CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM.)

This research was supported by funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (MOP123280, MOP115042, MOP9575), the Fonds de Recherche Quebec-Santé, the National Science and Engineering Research Council (249848-2007 RGPIN), the Montreal Diabetes Research Center/Université de Montréal and CMDO/Novo Nordisk.

The University of Montreal is officially known as Université de Montréal.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New classification system for brain tumors

2015-07-14
Despite modern chemoradiation therapy it is still very difficult to give reliable prognoses for malignant gliomas. Surgical removal of the glioma is still the preferred method of treatment. Doctors at Universitätsklinikum Erlangen's Department of Neurosurgery have now developed a new procedure for analysing radiological imaging scans which makes it possible to predict the course of a disease relatively precisely. Their findings have now been published in the journal 'Scientific Reports'.* The Friedlein Grading A/B (FGA/B) classification system - named after the physician ...

Rice U research sheds light on Amazon vs. Wal-Mart competition

2015-07-14
HOUSTON - (July 14, 2015) - After Amazon announced plans last week for a day of online retail discounts July 15 comparable to Black Friday, Wal-Mart is launching a rival sale online the same day. Who will win the e-commerce battle? Winning is a matter of consistent superior e-service quality -- not just on one particular day of the year, according to new research from Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business. "Increased e-service quality is associated with increased customer satisfaction, which then leads to higher repurchase intentions," said Vikas Mittal, ...

Stem cell transplant alleviates symptoms in lupus animal models

2015-07-14
Putnam Valley, NY. (July 14, 2015) - Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that produces autoantibodies and subsequent immune reactions that can lead to a variety of symptoms, including inflammation of the kidneys, or nephritis. When researchers transplanted mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from human bone marrow into mice modeled with SLE, they found that inflammation was reduced and nephritis "attenuated." They suggested that their study revealed a "novel mechanism" by which the MSCs can regulate the progression of autoimmune diseases such as ...

UTHealth research: Teen birth, mental health lead child hospitalizations in Texas

2015-07-14
HOUSTON - (July 14, 2015) - From 2004 to 2010 in Texas, mental illness was the most common reason for the hospitalization of children ages 10-14 while pregnancy/birth was the most common reason for the hospitalization of adolescents ages 15-17, according to researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School. The results were published in the July issue of Hospital Pediatrics, a journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "We were surprised by those two findings and the related costs in millions of dollars," said Bethanie ...

Advanced composites may borrow designs from deep-sea shrimp

Advanced composites may borrow designs from deep-sea shrimp
2015-07-14
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - New research is revealing details about how the exoskeleton of a certain type of deep-sea shrimp allows the animal to survive scalding hot waters in hydrothermal vents thousands of feet under water. "A biological species surviving in that kind of extreme environment is a big deal," said Vikas Tomar, an associate professor in Purdue University's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. "And shrimp are a great test case for evolution because you can find different species all over the world living at various depths and with a range of adaptation requirements." He ...

Kids expecting aggression from others become aggressive themselves

2015-07-14
DURHAM, N.C. -- Hypervigilance to hostility in others triggers aggressive behavior in children, says a new Duke University-led study. The four-year longitudinal study involving 1,299 children and their parents finds the pattern holds true in 12 different cultural groups from nine countries across the globe. This pattern is more common in some cultures than others, which helps explain why some cultures have more aggressive behavior problems in children than other cultures, according to the study. The findings, published online Monday in Proceedings of the National ...

Dietary intervention primes triple-negative breast cancer for targeted therapy

2015-07-14
MADISON, Wis. -- A diet that starves triple-negative breast cancer cells of an essential nutrient primes the cancer cells to be more easily killed by a targeted antibody treatment, UW Carbone Cancer Center scientists report in a recent publication. The study's senior author, Vincent Cryns, professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, says the study lays the foundation for a clinical trial to see if a low-methionine diet will help improve outcomes in women with "triple-negative" breast cancer. Methionine is an essential amino ...

Nanospheres shield chemo drugs, safely release high doses in response to tumor secretions

2015-07-14
Scientists have designed nanoparticles that release drugs in the presence of a class of proteins that enable cancers to metastasize. That is, they have engineered a drug delivery system so that the very enzymes that make cancers dangerous could instead guide their destruction. "We can start with a small molecule and build that into a nanoscale carrier that can seek out a tumor and deliver a payload of drug," said Cassandra Callmann, a graduate student in chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, and first author of the report published in ...

Closing the quality chasm in mental health and substance use care

2015-07-14
NEW YORK, NY (July 14, 2015) - A plan to ensure that evidence-based psychosocial interventions are routinely used in clinical practice and made a part of clinical training for mental health professionals was released today by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). The NAM report, titled, "Psychosocial Interventions for Mental and Substance Use Disorders," points to a strong need to strengthen evidence on the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions, and to develop guidelines and quality measures for implementing these interventions in professional practice. Though ...

High-pressure oxygen can effectively treat fibromyalgia

2015-07-14
Fibromyalgia is almost impossible to diagnose. The chronic pain syndrome strikes an estimated 1 in 70 Americans, most of them women. The disorder is often triggered by head trauma, a neurological infection, or severe emotional stress, and is characterized by symptoms such as musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, memory loss and mood swings. Fibromyalgia is often mistaken for other culprits and most patients suffer months, even years, of unrelenting pain before being properly diagnosed. And once diagnosed, patients enjoy little respite because few therapies have been found to be ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

[Press-News.org] This is your brain on fried eggs
New study shows saturated high-fat feeding can cause impairments in critical motivation brain pathway