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IPFS News Link • Science, Medicine and Technology

HOW THE BRAIN CREATES MARIJUANA-FUELED MUNCHIES

• http://www.popsci.com,By Francie Diep

O, Mouse! What have you not done for science? But perhaps this experiment was not as bad as most: In a recent study, an international team of biologists used mice to figure out which brain cells are involved in creating the marijuana munchies.

Since humans have many of the brain cell types that mice do, with similar behaviors linked to them, the studies findings provide a clue as to how the munchies work in people. The research is also part of a larger effort to understand how the brain controls people's appetites, which is important to health. Such research might eventually help scientists make new treatments for people with poor appetites, such as chemotherapy or AIDS patients.

So what's the secret to cannabis cravings? To find out, biologists injected mice with a chemical that sticks to certain cannabinoid receptors in their brains. Cannabinoids are the active chemicals found in marijuana. The human body also produces cannabinoids--not the same ones as marijuana plants, obviously, or else everybody would be high all the time--to regulate important bodily systems.


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