Food preferences: Flies and potentially humans decide on food based on factors such as taste and fillingness

In a groundbreaking study published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, researchers at Yale University have uncovered intriguing connections between food choices in fruit flies and humans. The research, led by Preeti Sareen, associate research scientist at Yale, and co-authored by Li Yan McCurdy, a graduate student at Yale School of Medicine, offers a template to understand how hunger and internal emotional states influence behaviour.

The study delves into the neuroscience behind food choices, focusing on the regulation of neural activity in both fruit flies' brains and humans by the secretion of neuropeptides and the neurotransmitter dopamine. In humans, dopamine is known to help regulate sensations of reward.

In the case of fruit flies, the hungrier they were, the more likely they were to tolerate bitter taste to obtain more calories, according to Michael Nitabach, professor at Yale School of Medicine. This behaviour was observed when the flies were offered a choice between sweet, nutritious food laced with bitter quinine and a less sweet, lower-calorie food.

The researchers found they could change a fly's choice by manipulating neurons in areas of the brain that feed into the fan-shaped body, a portion of the brain where the decision-making process takes place. The decision-making process in fruit flies, it seems, involves the integration of sensory information in the fan-shaped body.

The study also revealed that changes in the network of neuropeptides and dopamine may alter how the brain responds to different types of food. This suggests that neurochemistry may sometimes dictate food choices we think we are making consciously.

The findings of this study imply that our food choices may be influenced by neurochemistry to a greater extent than previously thought. Patterns of neuronal activity in the fan-shaped body change adaptively when novel food choices are introduced, which dictates the fly's decision over what food to eat.

The research was published on July 5, adding a significant contribution to the understanding of neuroscience and its role in food choices. The exact research group at Yale University currently investigating this area was not explicitly named in the search results, but the fact that Yale University is mentioned as the address for the Gruber Foundation suggests research funding or affiliation, although it does not specify a group focused on decision-making in flies related to eating.