Sex-Starved Flies Turn to Alcohol, Study Shows.
March 21, 2012
A new study has shown that sex-deprived fruit flies are more likely to drink excessive amounts of alcohol than their sexually satisfied counterparts.
It’s one of those studies that raise the question: Who does this kind of research?
“This was just a wild experiment to do,” lead researcher Galit Shohat-Ophir acknowledged in a report in the journal Science. But she said the study yielded dramatic results that could shed light on the brain mechanisms involved in social interactions and addiction.
In the experiments conducted at the University of California, San Francisco, male fruit flies were placed in containers with either virgin female flies or female flies that had already mated. The ones that had already mated had no interest in sex – and they actively resisted all attempts from the male flies. The male fruit flies went through this process four days in a row. Then, they were put in containers with two kinds of food – one laced with alcohol and one without. The sexually rejected flies binged on alcohol, while the flies that were able to mate drank very little.
Scientists have pointed out that unraveling the connection to human behaviors could take years. The human mind is far more complex than a fruit fly’s brain, the researchers said. NB: Good to know!!!
Click here for the full article from the San Francisco Chronicle
My Thoughts…
What does this all mean!?!?! Well, for starters it’s obviously good to know where all our tax $’s are going. Who needs a cure for cancer anyway!?!?
Secondly, if scientists are looking for an answer as to whether humans mimic this same behavior, why examine flies? Why not survey some of the regulars at their local watering hole?
Reportedly, scientists have still yet to find out whether fruit flies go to the extreme of changing their Flybook status from being “in a relationship” to “it’s complicated”, but hopefully another few million $’s in research funding will help put a fix to that…
