But we know something is going on. The neurocircuitry in our brains is similar to that of flies. Aging is much easier to study in flies than in humans, Tatar said. As cold-blooded creatures, flies have a much greater range of adaptability to environmental signals such as light, temperature or food. These all may trigger reproduction and rapid aging.
Humans don t adapt to environments.
We adapt environments to us. The research serves as a model for further studies in other species such as mice where scientists already breed all sorts of genetic possibilities, Tatar said. He and colleagues are currently studying how a fly brain makes insulin and how the insulin-signaling pathway regulates hormones that circulate throughout the body. The research was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Aging and a New Scholar Award from the Ellison Medical Foundation.