I know from experiments that my colleagues do that for some kinds of acts, such as consuming food, the brain wants to be quiet, so the cells that are hungry stop firing when you start eating. And then so the brain is training me to understand it, and the scientist will continue to acquire that kind of knowledge. I mean, the one that springs to my mind, and it's a very crude one, is dieting. I mean you could train a certain brain cell, a neuron, to stop being as it thought it was, hungry. Well, you know, it's an interesting thing.
Human beings have the problem of appetite control consciously driven.
Experimental animals, animals in the wild, rarely become obese because food supply is always at a minimum and therefore they're constantly foraging and hunting, but human beings can decide to eat when they're not hungry, as a matter of nerves, can decide to stop eating when they are hungry, as a matter of appearance, and so there is this conscious overlay on to it. I would say that we could train the brain to ignore the signs and feelings coming from what you think is your growling stomach and help the person maintain their willingness not to overeat for sufficient time that the brain retunes itself as to how the stomach should feel. We used to believe that losing mental capacity was an inevitable part of getting older, but as more people stay healthy for longer periods of time what we recognise is the brain has enormous powers to maintain itself in prime condition, provided we do certain things with it, which is to keep it active, to keep it probing, to keep it learning. The brain likes to learn. And so, to maintain its healthy function we say things like well you should read, do crossword puzzles, engage yourself in mental games, things of that kind.