Diet-Induced Obesity May Change Brain In Ways That Suppress Impulse To Move Around, Mouse Study Suggests.

reports that research in mice published in Cell Metabolism “offers evidence that diet-induced obesity alters the brain’s functioning in ways that suppress the natural impulse to move around.” STAT (12/29, Samuel) reports that the investigators found that “the activity of a particular dopamine receptor linked to movement goes down as mice gain weight on a high-fat diet.” Thus, the rodents “slow down and they move less.” When the investigators “restored the activity of that dopamine receptor...the mice started moving more, even though they were still obese.” The study also indicated that mice that were lean that did not have the receptor also did not “move around as much.” http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-obesity-inactivity-20161229-story.html