Blame pot munchies on nerve cells that normally nix appetite
Marijuana prompts neurons to release chemicals that stoke hunger
Potheads can blame their munchies on nerve cells that are supposed to keep them feeling full, scientists report February 18 in Nature.
“It’s like you’re driving your car downhill and you push your brakes, and all of a sudden the brake becomes the accelerator,” says coauthor Tamas Horvath, a neurobiologist at Yale University.
Horvath and his team gave mice a chemical that mimics the effects of marijuana by fastening to cannabinoid receptors, molecules in the brain that are involved in controlling appetite, feeling pain and other processes. The researchers then looked at the rodents’ brains to see what neural circuitry was active. To their surprise, nerve cells that normally suppress appetite lit up.