Researchers at the University of Warwick have for the first time
been able to detail how and why specific neurons in the brain
control the hunger response. They have revealed a set of
pacemaker nerve cells in the brain that appear to underlie the
drive to feed which itself feeds on a complex web of signals.
The level of complexity they have found is such that the system
could be much more at risk of serious repercussions from a
single error in how those signals are processed than anyone had
previously thought. Any number of a range of errors could lead
to over activity of these pacemaker cells and explain why many
people find difficulty in eating less. In the research,
published in the May Issue of Nature Neuroscience, Dr David
Spanswick and his research team in the University of Warwick's
Department of Biological Sciences, looked at a part of the brain
called the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus which was known to deal
with hunger and satiety signals but how it achieves this is
poorly understood. The University