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2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/sci/ - Science & Math

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6611935 No.6611935 [Reply] [Original]

During starvation, are brain cells broken down for amino acids or is the brain a privileged organ in some sense?

>> No.6611942

>>6611935
Bump gor interest

>> No.6611944

>>6611935
Your brain is the most vital organ in your body. If it were broken down due to a lack of food, humanity would have gone extinct long ago.

>> No.6611945

>>6611935
>>6611942
>>6611944

Stupid thread, please delete and go to bed.

>> No.6611949

The brain is mostly made of fat. During starvation, or even dieting, the brain is broken down for fat.

You can see it on brain scans of dieters that they lose some brain density, which is likely related to the fuzzy-headedness and depression associated with dieting.

Under more extreme malnutrition, the brain can also break down due to a lack of the nutrients needed to maintain it. It's fairly common for old people and alcoholics to have dementia due to vitamin deficiencies, such as vitamin b12 and thiamine.

>> No.6611954

>>6611935
wtf op?? are u just but hurt cause ur momy starved you when u were a child and used child support funds to pay for her own agenda?? then u got bad grades in school which she subsequently blamed on your poor genetics and stupidity even tho you went to school hungry? dude wtf get a life rekt, get a life bro

>> No.6611962

>>6611944
Near death even heart muscle begins to break down for energy, so why not the brain? Wouldn't it make sense to lose some brain mass to keep the rest running?

>> No.6611972

>or is the brain a privileged organ
lol nope

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20534972

>> No.6611987

the brain is made of the same substance (neurons) as the rest of your nervous system. If your body did that to itself it would no longer be able to communicate between its subsystems. Your brain could no longer communicate with anything because the transmission line if you will would be broken.

>> No.6612005

>>6611972
that's autophagy though, not apoptosis

>> No.6612082
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6612082

>>6612005
excessive autophagy (as in starvation) leads to atrophy, retraction of synapses/dendrites, and cell death

>>6611987
survival is very different from maintaining higher cognitive function

just look at this guy, barely has a brain yet his IQ is still 75

>> No.6612087

>>6612082
autophagy is also used as a mechanism for garbage collection and cleaning a cell

>> No.6612091

My guess is that a small part of it would, but the body could rebuild it with stem cells

>> No.6612103

>>6612091
lol

>> No.6612108
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6612108

let me rephrase OP's question
so you literary inept idiots can better understand

>is the brain prioritized over other organ systems when the body is out of nutrients, so that it is the last to be digested

>> No.6612519

>>6611949
>the brain is mostly fat
Nope...
It's about 12% fat, and a lot of that fat coats neurons to create nodes of Ranvier. So it only appears to be a lot of fat, but in reality it makes up a small volume of the brain

>> No.6612520

>>6611954
much edge
such retard

>> No.6612558

When i'm on a cut...Do i lose my brain-gainz?

>> No.6612561

>>6611935
that's why Africans are stupid

>> No.6612576

>>6612519
>>6612519
Wait, aren't nodes of Ranvier the parts where the axon ISN'T covered? I ask because next week I have a phisiology exam and I wouldn't want to get it wrong.