Men really DO have sex on the brain: Extra cells found in males

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Men really DO have sex on the brain: Extra cells found in males make them prioritise relationships over everything - even food

10/15/2015, 4:59 AM - Source: dailymail.co.uk
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SexBrainMalesmen

• A study of tiny worms found males boast two extra brain cells
• These cells drive them to seek out sex, often prioritising it over food
• While the study was carried out on worms, the researchers said it provides insight into the behaviour of the sexes of other animals, including humans

It is often said men think about sex every six seconds, and now research has shown some males really do have sex on the brain.

A study of tiny, transparent worms found the males boast two extra brain cells that drive them to seek out sex.

In fact, these cells have such a powerful pull, they can cause them to prioritise sex above food.

Although the study was on worms, because their biology is similar to ours the researchers said the findings provide insight into the behaviour of the sexes of other animals, including humans.

The University College London scientists studied C elegans, a soil-dwelling worm that grows to just 1mm long.

Despite its small size, its biology has much in common with ours and it is the most studied animal in the world.



It comes in two sexes - male and hermaphrodite, a modified female that does not need to have sex to reproduce.

Experiments have previously shown the males to have a pair of brain cells that aren't found in the hermaphrodites.

Further experiments have now revealed just what these 'mystery cells of the male', or MCMs, do.

First, the worms were trained to associate saltiness with starvation.

As a result, if they were placed on a plate with different concentrations of salt, they moved away from the mineral.

Both sexes learnt to do this, the journal Nature reports.

However, if the worms were trained to link saltiness with starvation and with sex, they made a bee-line for salt.

This, say the researchers, shows they were prioritising sex over food.

In contrast, the hermaphrodites continued to avoid salt, as did males that had their MSMs removed.

The researchers, who collaborated US scientists, said the cells enable the brain to process information differently, allowing males to 'remember previous sexual encounters and prioritise sex in future situations'.

UCL researcher Dr Richard Poole said: 'In the broader picture, it gets at this question of how do men and women think and behave differently.

'We always wonder, do we have different learning aptitudes or is it social, and in this case, it happens to be genetic.'

Co-author Professor Scott Emmons, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, said: 'Though the work is carried out in a small worm, it nevertheless gives us a perspective that helps us appreciate and possibly understand the variety of human sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender identification.'

The MSMs only appear when the males become sexually mature and learning more about how they are made could also help in the quest to make cells to repair damaged areas of the brain.

Previous research has explored and debunked the claim that men think about sex every six seconds.

The US study found that men do think about sex rather a lot.

But it's more in the region of once every 50 minutes - or around 19 times a day.

Women daydream more about food and so only manage ten racy thoughts a day.

This isn't the first time the C elegans worm has proved invaluable to scientific research.

In June last year, researchers discovered the worm can put itself into 'famine mode' - a state where it does not age.

The experts found that taking food away from C. elegans triggered a state of arrested development: while the organism continued to wriggle about, foraging for food, its cells and organs were suspended in an ageless, quiescent state.

When food became plentiful again, the worm developed as planned, but could live twice as long as normal.

This is interesting because it could have implications for helping humans live longer.

'It is possible that low-nutrient diets set off the same pathways in us to put our cells in a quiescent state,' said David R. Sherwood, an associate professor of biology at Duke University who led the research.

'The trick is to find a way to pharmacologically manipulate this process so that we can get the anti-aging benefits without the pain of diet restriction.'



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