Learning From the Spurned and Tipsy Fruit Fly

[didymus]

NY Times:

Learning From the Spurned and Tipsy Fruit Fly

They were young males on the make, and they struck out not once, not twice, but a dozen times with a group of attractive females hovering nearby. So they did what so many men do after being repeatedly rejected: they got drunk, using alcohol as a balm for unfulfilled desire.

And not one flew off in search of a rotting banana.
Fruit flies apparently self-medicate just like many humans do, drowning their sorrows or frustrations for some of the same reasons, scientists reported Thursday. Male flies subjected to what amounted to a long tease — in a glass tube, not a dance club — preferred food spiked with alcohol far more than male flies that were able to mate.
The study, posted online in the journal Science, suggests that some elements of the brain’s reward system have changed very little during evolution, and these include some of the mechanisms that support addiction. Levels of a brain chemical that is active in regulating appetite predicted the flies’ thirst for alcohol. A similar chemical is linked to drinking in humans.
“Reading this study is like looking back in time, to see the very origins of the reward circuit that drives fundamental behaviors like sex, eating and sleeping,” said Dr. Markus Heilig, the clinical director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholismand the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Your tax dollars at work.

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

This is a news report of a study, not the actual study report.

This part of the news article;

and these include some of the mechanisms that support addiction

Gives a little insight as to what the study might be good for.

Not everything that money is spent on will have an obvious or immediate benefit.

Just look at the space program.

 

[bbarrick8383]

I prefer a glass tube as opposed to a dance club as well.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

This is a news report of a study, not the actual study report.

This part of the news article;

Gives a little insight as to what the study might be good for.

Not everything that money is spent on will have an obvious or immediate benefit.

Just look at the space program.

I can see one benefit already. If you’re an Astronaut and you can’t swat a pair of mating flies that somehow snuck on board, put out a glass of beer. You’ll get rid of the male in no time.