A sexually frustrated fly that drowns his sorrows in booze. Weird? Sure, but true nevertheless. New research shows that male fruitflies that have been rejected by females are more likely to consume alcohol.
Researchers created a ‘dating room’ for male and female fruitflies and observed which males were able to mate and which were rejected. After the experience, the flies were given a choice of regular food or alcoholic-laced food. Male flies that had sex consumed significantly less alcohol than their frustrated counterparts.
What is going on here? The researchers suggest that the preference for alcohol is sent from the reward system in the brain. The males who managed to mate had a higher concentration of a brain chemical called neuropeptide F (NPF) in their blood. Probably, NPF plays a key role in the natural reward system of the fly. Pleasurable activities like having sex boost the activity of brain circuits that use NPF, creating a form of satisfaction. If a fly is denied sex, the system goes into deficit, driving the fly to seek other rewarding activities such as drinking alcohol.
“I think it’s a pretty good bet that it will translate to humans,” said Ulrike Heberlein of the University of California, San Francisco, who led the research. If so, “one can say we could now understand why a negative experience, such as a sexual rejection, could drive somebody to drink.”
It seems that further research into NPF brain circuitry could shed light on the biology of alcohol abuse and possibly point to treatments someday.
Source: Nature , Huffington Post
Shohat-Ophir, G., Kaun, K., Azanchi, R., & Heberlein, U. (2012). Sexual Deprivation Increases Ethanol Intake in Drosophila Science, 335 (6074), 1351-1355 DOI: 10.1126/science.1215932
Photo: adactio / Flickr
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