St. Patrick’s Day is a great day to post this story from the pst week on the relationship between having sex and the desire to drink alcohol. No, it’s probably not what you think. For one, it involves fruit flies, a category to which relatively few of our readers belong.
It’s really pretty darn interesting and scientific, actually.
Troy Zars, a biologist at the University of Missouri and an expert in neurobiology, did a study of male fruit flies. Some of them had mated repeatedly for several days. Others were males whom female fruit flies had spurned. A third group were males who had been denied access to female flies altogether. To me, the most impressive part of the experiment may have simply been getting the male fruit flies sorted into these three categories. I will not speculate on what led some flies to be spurned and how others were denied access to female flies, but yes it does bring back memories of college. (Not necessarily my own memories. Ahem.)
The fruit flies were then let loose to choose between one of two foods: one normal food (for a fruit fly, anyway) and the other the same food saturated in a 15% ethanol (that’s alcohol, to you) solution.
Wait, wait, wait — before I give you the results: what do you think happened? Which type of flies preferred which food, if any? Write down your answer before you come back to read the rest. (Or don’t — who do I think I’m kidding?)
OK, the flies that had been doing the nasty for a couple of days preferred … drum roll … either. “Just give me something to eat, I’m worn out.” No celebratory beer with the boys, no post-coital cognac. I’ll take whatever’s on the plate, thanks.
What about spurned males and those denied access to females? You know the drill — WRITE IT DOWN BEFORE YOU READ ON!
Such flies … chose to get drunk. Yeah, really. “Chose” may not be the precise word, but they were more likely to partake of the spiked food. Were they drowning their sorrows? Come on, these are fruit flies! But there may be something even more basic, something that gives us insights into human drinking behavior as well. In his article, published in Science, Zars said that the male Drosophila melanogaster flies may turn to alcohol to fulfill a physiological demand for a reward, with alcohol intoxication in effect serving as a poor second proxy for hot fruit fly sex. Understanding why rejected male flies find solace in ethanol could help treat human addictions.
“Identifying the molecular and genetic mechanisms controlling the demand for reward in fruit flies could potentially influence our understanding of drug and alcohol abuse in humans, since previous studies have detailed similarities between signaling pathways in fruit flies and mammals,” Zars said.
Zars said the new discovery could lead to greater understanding of the relationship between the social and physical causes of substance abuse in humans.
“The authors provide new insights into a neural circuit that links a rewarding social interaction with a lasting change in behavior preference,” Zars said.
So when you see guys drinking at the bar this St. Patrick’s Day Saturday night — well, don’t draw any firm conclusions. These are flies and we are people, after all. And you really want to know who gets drunk after they either did or didn’t find some sexual reward on the holiday weekend.
More seriously, this study has greater implications for drug regulation. Living things — even fruit flies — crave rewards, and when they can’t get Reward A they’re more likely to make up for it with Reward B. One such reward is sexual activity. Another is getting intoxicated. Those who avoid both turn out like Rick Santorum. Society has to make way for the fact that we living things do seek rewards; it has to recognize that blocking that reward-seeking behavior altogether “goes against nature” in a more fundamental way than anything about which the likes of Rick Santorum preach.
At worst, the reward a living entity substitutes for sex or intoxication may be one that comes at others’ expense. But enough about Mitt Romney and his yearnings. Happy St. Pat’s Day, everyone!
Fruit flies ………………………………… fuckin’ fruit flies?
Hey there – you can’t use the f word in every fuckin comment or you’re gonna start getting censored. Happy St Patrick’s Day.
The fruit flies are fucking, or are not fucking, that is the gist of the article.
Fucking fruit flies ….. now I know that I am in Wonderland and that I am the Hookah-Smoking Caterpillar ).
That’s not the gist of the article. They’ve been doing that for a long time; how do you think they make more fruit flies?
The gist of the article is that when the flies don’t satisfy themselves one way they satisfy themselves another way, that second way being by seeking intoxication. It’s an awfully interesting result. That one can even do this experiment on fruit flies and get this result is pretty cool — scientifically.
There are fruit flies in the San Fernando Valley right now casting for a new genre of porn. Fruit fly sex.
Raid has already expressed an interest in producing a fruit fly snuff film. Working titles are “The Fly Who Loved Me,” and “For Your 1600 Eyes Only.”
“.. when the flies don’t satisfy themselves one way they satisfy themselves another way.”
Greg – Are you saying that fruit flies are into fapping?
Not sure really, being an over-50 OG and all, but from my field observations, fapping is NOT just masturbating, but running thru busy traffic masturbating while Christian and dehydrated.
I’m not sure about the Christian part, but it seems to me fruit flies do all of that a lot.
@Junior: not unless fapping also means intentionally getting drunk.
I can’t remember — are you one of the anti-science Republicans?
Yes, fruit flies. If you think that there’s nothing to be learned about motivational drive on humans from studying fruit flies, dust off your science smock and explain why.
As seen on my website above, your article flies in the face of Gröfaz behavior.
Obviously, Gröfaz is a supper fly.
As the flies were eating, they were all supper flies.
Human culture and higher cognitive function can overcome the neural substrate of our motivations. I would not expect you to know this on either count.
And of course – here comes Fiala …. I am outta here ).
sillywag, stay!
You are relevant any way.
“Human culture and higher cognitive function can overcome the neural substrate of our motivations. I would not expect you to know this on either count.”………. Hmmmmm
Very defective weapon to combat fruit fly is to release gay male flies into the effected environment.
Obviously, in socialistic Human culture (…) the neural substrate of our motivations is gayness.
“Very defective weapon to combat fruit fly is to release gay male flies into the .. environment.”
Aren’t all friut flies gay by definition?
So does that explain the reason that some women drink to excess, to have the themselves reek of alcohol sweat to attach drunks.
How does it go? Alcohal, making men and women look good.
*Try Fly Strips…..or …the electric kind. They are non-sectarian! Fly swatters are brutal devices and truly can be cruel and unusual in knocking off a wing or leg…..truly a sad tail….or tale….as the case may be.
Mother would say: “No drunken sots…..for me!” “Don’t wear a moustashe either!” “No underarm odor!”……”No bad teeth or bad breath!” “No pickin your nose in public!” “No spitting on the sidewalk!” “or in the bushes!” “Dress nicely……and always comb your hair!” “Change your underwear every day!” “Change your socks after you go to work!” “Never wear a torn or spotty t-shirt!” “Mind your manners!”
“Don’t use profanity in front of the gentle sex!” “Don’t drink to excess!” “You don’t need three beers!” “Never drink straight from the bottle….unless it is milk!”
“Ooh…do whatever you want….just don’t fight!”
“Ooh…do whatever you want….just don’t fight!”……… Hmmmmm
And no commenting after 10th Bloody Mary.
Unfortunately, the article was written by the Left-Liberal-Politicaly-Correct-Progresive so he omitted a disclosure about the Mexican Fruit Fly which behaves totally out of scope of this article.
So once again you have been fed the green energy.