>

Exercise and your brain: The orexin system and temptation

We placed mice in the center of an eight-armed radial maze that had four arms baited with tasty treats and the other four arms baited with less tasty treats. When the mice were treated with a drug that blocks orexin signaling in the brain, they spent more time exploring the arms baited with the tastier treats, suggesting that they were less able to resist temptation.

The research, published in Nature Neuroscience, points to a chemical messenger called orexin as the key.

Next he wants to find out how the orexin neurons interact with the rest of the brain when making decisions like the one between eating and exercise. The chemical messenger orexin and the orexin neurons in the brain mediate the decision between exercise and eating

Orexin-producing neurons integrate physiological and metabolic information to coordinate multiple behavioral responses.

Although orexins were initially described as peptides that regulate feeding behavior, research has shown that orexins are involved in a wide range of behaviors, including arousal, reward, and addiction.