Tag Archive for 'Dopamine'

Chronic caffeine intake prompts compensatory and cumulative dopamine transporter downregulation, consistent with caffeine’s reported risk reduction in Parkinson’s disease. Image credit: Clinical Neurosciences, University of Turku.

Regular Caffeine Consumption Affects Brain Dopamine Function in Parkinson’s Patients, Study Says

May 28, 2024 by News Staff

In a new cross-sectional and longitudinal study, researchers from the University of Turku and Turku University Hospital investigated the effects of dietary...

Dopamine release following intragastric glucose and lipid infusions in lean participants and participants with obesity before and after weight loss. Image credit: van Galen et al., doi: 10.1038/s42255-023-00816-9.

Brain Responses to Nutrients are Severely Impaired in Humans with Obesity, Study Shows

Jun 13, 2023 by News Staff

Importantly, the impaired neuronal responses are not restored after diet-induced weight loss, according to a new study led by Amsterdam University Medical...

Using an interventional study in healthy, normal-weight participants, Thanarajah et al. demonstrate that, independent of body weight gain and alterations in metabolic markers, exposure to high-fat/high-sugar food: (i) reduces preferences for low-fat food, (ii) plays a critical role in up-regulating brain responses to anticipation and consumption of highly palatable, energy-dense food, and (iii) has a generalized effect on the neuronal encoding of prediction errors in the context of associative learning and independent of food rewards. Taken together, repeated consumption of high-fat/high-sugar relative to isocaloric low-fat/low-sugar food, and in the absence of changes in body weight or metabolic state, can rewire brain circuits and thereby induce neurobehavioral adaptations. Hence, changing the food environment and reducing the availability of energy-dense high-fat/high-sugar food items is pivotal to combating the obesity pandemic. Image credit: Thanarajah et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2023.02.015.

Daily Consumption of Sweet and Fatty Snacks Alters Our Reward Circuits: Study

Mar 23, 2023 by News Staff

Western diets rich in fat and sugar promote excess calorie intake and weight gain; however, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. To close this gap, researchers...

Matcha tea. Image credit: Dung Thuy Vu Nguyen.

Matcha Tea Has Anti-Anxiety Properties, New Study Shows

Jul 16, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a study done in mice, a team of researchers at Kumamoto University, Japan, demonstrated that Matcha tea powder exerts strong and synergistic anxiolytic...

This digitally-colorized scanning electron microscopic image depicts Enterococcus faecalis. Image credit: Pete Wardell / CDC.

Gut Bacteria Consume Parkinson’s Drug Levodopa, Often with Harmful Side Effects

Jun 27, 2019 by News Staff

Parkinson’s disease is a debilitating neurological condition affecting more than 1% of the global population aged 60 and above. The primary medication...

Thanarajah et al combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) to assess the brain’s response to food intake and discovered immediate and delayed dopamine release in distinct areas of the human brain; the study authors also identified areas where dopamine release reflected subjective wanting to eat, shedding light on how the brain transforms energetic signals into the desire to eat. Image credit: Thanaraja et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2018.12.006.

Study: Our Brain Rewards Us Twice Per Meal

Jan 2, 2019 by News Staff

Our brain rewards us for every meal by releasing dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a starring role in motivating behavior. According to a new study,...

In fruit flies, dopamine neurons regulate both learning and forgetting. Berry et al identify a locus for the storage and retrieval of a short-term memory trace and show that a single dopamine neuron regulates both formation and disruption of this trace. Image credit: Berry et al, doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.09.051.

Neuroscientists Decode Physiological Mechanism of Remembering and Forgetting

Nov 30, 2018 by News Staff

In a study of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), a team of researchers from the Scripps Research Institute Florida has shown the physiological mechanism...

This image shows a colony of red harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex barbatus); a forager is marked with an identifying color. Image credit: Becca Nelson.

Neurotransmitter Dopamine Makes Harvester Ants More Productive: Study

Oct 2, 2018 by News Staff

Colonies of the red harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) forage in the desert for seeds that provide both food and water. Foragers lose water while out...

Dopaminergic system and reward processing: dopaminergic neurons are located in the midbrain structures substantia nigra (SNc) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA); their axons project to the striatum (caudate nucleus, putamen and ventral striatum including nucleus accumbens), the dorsal and ventral prefrontal cortex; the mesolimbic dopamine pathway mediates the psychopharmacology of reward, whether that is a natural high or a drug-induced high, and is sometimes referred to as the pleasure center of the brain, with dopamine as the pleasure neurotransmitter. Image credit: Oscar Arias-Carrion et al, doi: 10.1186/1755-7682-7-29.

Study: Neurotransmitter Dopamine Plays Role in Human Bonding

Feb 20, 2017 by News Staff

Researchers have found for the first time that dopamine, a vital neurotransmitter in the brain, is involved in human bonding. The results appear in the...

Sofia Soares et al investigated midbrain dopamine neurons during timing behavior in mice; when measuring and manipulating mouse activity, the team observed that dopamine neurons controlled temporal judgments on a time scale of seconds. Image credit: Geralt.

Neuroscientists Identify Neurons that Control Judgment of Time

Dec 13, 2016 by News Staff

A new study in mice shows that dopamine neuron activity plays a key role in judgment of time, slowing down the internal clock. Sofia Soares et al investigated...

Cannabis use in humans is associated with reduced dopamine in the striatum. PET studies have shown lower striatal dopamine synthesis and release capacity in cannabis users. Lower dopamine synthesis capacity in the dorsal striatum is directly associated with reduced motivation levels, whereas reduced dopamine release in the ventral striatum is directly associated with negative emotion levels and severity of addiction. Image credit: Michael A. P. Bloomfield et al, doi: 10.1038/nature20153.

Long-Term Marijuana Use Blunts Brain’s Reward System, Say Researchers

Nov 28, 2016 by News Staff

Regular use of cannabis over many years lowers levels of dopamine, a key chemical in the brain’s reward center, says an international team of researchers...

New study suggests an intriguing strategy to boost memory for what you’ve just learned: hit the gym 4 hrs later. Image credit: Skeeze.

Physical Exercise Four Hours after Learning Improves Long-Term Memory, Study Shows

Jun 17, 2016 by News Staff

A new study in the journal Current Biology shows that physical exercise after learning improves memory and memory traces, but only if the exercise is done...

Curiosity helps learning and memory, scientists say. Anonymous painter, 15th century - Cahiers de Science et Vie no. 114.

New Study Provides Insight into How Piquing Curiosity Changes Our Brains

Oct 3, 2014 by News Staff

The more curious we are about a topic, the easier it is to learn information about that topic. A new study carried out by California University scientists...

Scientists Link Gene Variant to Human Longevity

Jan 9, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

According to scientists at the University of California in Irvine, a variant of the dopamine-receptor gene may be associated with longevity. Their findings,...