In The Male Mind, Sex Is Better Than Food

As part of the animal kingdom, humans are oftentimes preoccupied with two very critical needs: sex and food. Yet new findings published in the journal Current Biology have shown that for men in particular, sex is just a bit more "important" than food.

After taking a thorough look at the nervous system of the microscopic roundworm C. elegans, scientists discovered that males and hermaphrodites act differently when exposed to food. Hermaphrodites preferred food to mating whereas male worms would give up food in search of a new mate.

Researchers discovered that chemoreceptors that work as sensory mechanisms of the AWA neurons are regulated primarily by sexual identity of the cells. Furthermore, these chemoreceptors are also controlled by the expression of a receptor known as ODR-10 that binds to a chemical scent from food and other substances.

The findings also revealed that males who were deprived of food that produced dramatically higher levels of ODR-10 receptors, which was linked to focusing on finding food.

"These findings show that by tuning the properties of a single cell, we can change behavior," the study authors concluded, in a news release. "This adds to a growing body of evidence that sex-specific regulation of gene expression may play an important role in neural plasticity and, consequently, influence differences in behaviors - and in disease susceptibility - between the sexes."