Unusual experiment could provide insights
into addiction to rewarding substances
Josh Gabbatiss Science Correspondent
The Independent Online
Sex – specifically ejaculation – is an
enjoyable experience for male fruit flies, scientists have found, while demonstrating
that the sex starved among them are more likely to consume alcohol in order to
gain an alternative reward.
The unusual research not only demonstrated
that enjoyment of ejaculation appears to be a fairly universal phenomenon, it
could also be used to understand the biology of addiction.
"We wanted to know which part of the
mating process entails the rewarding value for flies," said Dr Galit
Shohat-Ophir of Bar-Ilan University in Israel, who co-authored the study.
"The actions that males perform during
courtship? A female's pheromones? The last step of mating which is sperm and
seminal fluid release?"
To determine what a fly does and does not
find pleasurable, the scientists made use of so-called “optogenetic” tools.
This allows researchers to genetically
engineer creatures with brain cells that can be essentially switched on and off
using light.
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