If You Give A Mouse A Cookie…

In the past year, neuroscience Professor Joseph Schroeder and a few dedicated neuroscience majors and Science Leaders took up the challenge of discovering what exactly happens when you give a mouse a cookie, or more specifically, an Oreo. The answer? Like most of us, they tend to want another.
Last year, Jamie Holohan ’13, a neuroscience major and PICA scholar, found a way to combine her interests in the form of a study that would explore the behavioral tendencies toward junk food in low-income communities where sugary, high-calorie food is most prevalent. “We chose Oreos not only because they are America’s favorite cookie and highly palatable to rats, but also because products containing high amounts of fat and sugar are heavily marketed in communities with lower socioeconomic statuses,” said Holohan in an interview with College Relations.
Holohan teamed up with fellow neuroscience major Becca Markson ’13, and Associate Professor of Psychology and Head of the Behavioral Neuroscience department, Joseph Schroeder, along with Gabby Lopez ’15 (a Science Leader) and Katrina Bantis ’14, (later continued by Lauren Cameron ’14, also a Science Leader). They explored whether high fat, high sugar foods could be put in the same category as highly addictive drugs such as cocaine and morphine when looking at the obesity epidemic gripping many poorer neighborhoods across the country. The group used standard, well-known methods of study that would not harm the animal subjects and passed through the department research approval process without issue.
The study, as described by Professor Schroeder, was done in two parts; one part focused more on behavioral conditioning, while the other studied actual effects of the brain more closely. The first portion is referred to as “conditioned place preference.” Lab rats were placed in an apparatus consisting of two chambers with slightly different appearances (one decorated with stripes and another with polka dots), but were otherwise identical, so the animal had no initial opinion of either side.
To start, one group of rats was alternatively given either a shot of saline and confined to one side, or a shot of cocaine or morphine and confined to the other. The premise was that they would develop a preference for whichever side they were on when they were administered the drug, and spend more time there when given the freedom to roam the two chambers on their own. To test the hypothesis that Oreos could have the same effects as the addictive drugs, Holohan did a similar experiment, replacing the saline with rice cakes and the cocaine and morphine with Oreos to see if a similar preference would be developed.
“Just like humans, rats didn’t seem to get much pleasure out of eating [rice cakes],” said Schroeder in an interview with College Relations. Oreos seemed to be the clear winner out of the two snacks, which is not entirely surprising considering the alternative. There seemed to be an equally strong side preference for the rats that were given drugs or Oreos, which is an indicator of the pleasure garnered by each stimulus, as well as how addictive they could be.
The second part of the study involved looking at the pleasure centers within the brains of the two separate groups using a process called immunohistochemistry “to measure the expression of a protein called c-Fos in the nucleus accumbens region of the brain.” For those who don’t speak neuroscience as fluently as Professor Schroder, basically they quantitatively measured the amount of pleasure in the brain’s pleasure center. Cookies and drugs aren’t the only things that can activate it; anything that feels good causes it to turn on. Following that logic, it is not surprising that Oreos activated the accumbens. However, what was surprising is that Oreos managed to activate it in the lab rats even more than acknowledged addictive drugs did.
At first glance, the basic assumption is that this study has indefinitely proven that Oreos, are more addictive than cocaine. After all, this is what all the major media sources have been touting since getting their hands on this story. According to Amy Martin of College Relations who has been in charge of fielding media queries, “The story has been reported by hundreds of media outlets. Some have contacted the College for more information or to request interviews, but many have linked to the College’s web story…or referred to other media stories.”
The research team was not at all expecting such a viral outbreak of their study. Professor Schroeder reports that the group has done interviews with several major news stations, including NBC, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, ABC and CBS news, WNPR and even some European news outlets.
In general, it seems to be a positive thing that the study, and in turn, Connecticut College, has been the center of so much media attention. Michael Murgo ‘15, a Psychology major, commented in an e-mail interview, “It’s challenging picking out what the media is inferring and sensationalizing versus what the researchers actually found. I’m just happy to see Conn getting the recognition it deserves for its student-centered research and, in this case, its quirky yet scientific brand liberal arts.” For a college that is not well-known for having a strong science department, this publicity seems to be a good thing.
However, this “sensationalizing” as Murgo put it, does have its dangers. As he said, it is difficult to nuance a headline comparing cookies to cocaine. The Connecticut College research team, especially Professor Schroeder, have some concerns about the reporting that has been done on their project, especially when they are asked to comment on its social implications:
“…I am personally uncomfortable with how the story has been misconstrued by the media and used for its shock value. There are some scientists who believe that uncontrolled food intake despite knowledge that high fat/sugar foods are bad for you and can lead to obesity can be thought of as an addiction. It is important to note that we are not talking about everyone. It may be the case that some people are pre-disposed or have a tendency towards addictive behavior while others have no trouble controlling their exposure to highly pleasurable stimuli.”
While the other members of the team declined comment with The College Voice, the appropriation of their studies as a trendy news story seems to be a valid concern, especially when their results are strictly conditional and still open to scientific review.
Though the team does not have any specific plans to continue research beyond a presentation at the San Diego conference for neuroscience, the data will continue to be looked at by both the team and the scientific community, and by Science Leader Lauren Cameron ’14 as a part of her Keck Fellowship.
So for now, we can be assured that when you give a mouse a cookie, no matter what CNN says, they will not be demanding cocaine next time around. •