This is what they do From collaborating with patients to research at cellular level: Brain Center Rudolf Magnus has a wide variety of scientists. They are all searching for the best answers to their questions, as are these four motivated researchers. By Aafke Kok Images: Bram Belloni
30 | New Scientist | Brain Center Rudolf Magnus
Frank Meye Translational neurosciences
Brain changes and binge eating In response to stress, both people and animals consume a great deal of sugar and fat. ‘Binge eating is a problem for people with obesity, eating disorders or people with impulsive behavior such as ADHD,’ says Frank Meye. The need for ‘bad’ food is accompanied by changes in communication between different areas of the brain involved in the processing of rewards. This is what Meye is studying. He is using mice that have been subjected to social stress and, therefore, display binge-eating behavior. Meye examines the mice’s brain tissue. Using electrodes, he measures the electrical signal with which nerve cells communicate. The more they communicate, the stronger the connection. Meye studies the differences in the strength of this connection between stressed mice and control mice. For example, he looks at connections with dopamine neurons, an important group of cells in the reward circuit of the brain. Meye can then control specific nerve cells in living mice and study the mice’s eating behavior. He does this through optogenetics or chemogenetics, with which he can turn nerve cells ‘on’ or ‘off’ using light or special viruses, respectively. This is how he is trying to uncover the link between changes in the brain and binge-eating behavior. Ultimately, he hopes to understand how to prevent these changes in the brain, in order to reduce binge eating.
