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Published online 6 May 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.802
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Hunger hormone helps memory
Blocking a hunger-inducing hormone to help obesity might have unwanted effects.
It’s a classic mistake: you arrive at the grocery store hungry, and everything seems irresistible. Researchers have now worked out how a hunger-induced hormone called ghrelin can make all that food seem so desirable.
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A little more lit searching would have been appropriate :-). For instance: "Whether ghrelin affects memory in general or only memories pertaining to food remains unknown is incorrect: see for example http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v9/n3/abs/nn1656.html which is the 3rd hit for 'ghrelin memory' in Google, after refs to this article... [Yes, ghrelin acts to improve hippocampal memory, increase spine density, and modulate plasticity]
Hi Ewan, Thanks for commenting! I believe the paper you're referring to is based on work performed in rodents. We alluded to that work in the article, but included the caveat that it isn't clear how that will translate to human memory.