Fruit Flies Help Explain Why Heat Makes Humans Sleepy
An internal thermometer in the brain of fruit flies prompts the insects to take a nap when they get hot. The discovery that could explain the effect of heat on human neurons, according to neurobiologists from Northwestern University.
What to Know
Fruit fly brain neurons that receive information about cold and hot temperatures are part of the broader system that regulates sleep, and they trigger flies take a midday nap to keep the insects from being active during the hottest part of the day.
The “absolute heat” receptors in a fruit fly’s head respond to temperatures above about 77° F because that is the flies’ favorite temperature, which also matches the favorite temperature of many humans.
The strong underlying biological mechanism in the brain that prompts fruit flies to sleep during the hottest part of the day may also exist in humans but has been overlooked.
The map of neural connections in the fly is called the connectome. It allows researchers to track all possible brain connections for each of the fly’s estimated 100,000 brain cells.
Laboratories generally study the common fruit fly, Drosophila, because it has colonized nearly the entire planet by forming a close association with humans.
This is a summary of the article, “A Thermometer Circuit for Hot Temperature Adjusts Drosophila Behavior to Persistent Heat,” published by Current Biology on August 17, 2022. The full article can be found on cell.com.
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