ignorance IS bliss

apparently scientists have discovered that hunger makes you smarter:

A team led by Tamas Horvath, chairman of Yale’s comparative medicine program, had been analyzing the pathways followed in mouse brains by ghrelin, a hormone produced by the stomach lining, when the stomach is empty. To the scientists’ surprise, they found that ghrelin was binding to cells not just in the primitive part of the brain that registers hunger (the hypothalamus) but also in the region that plays a role in learning, memory and spatial analysis (the hippocampus).

The researchers then put mice injected with ghrelin and control mice through a maze and other intelligence tests. In each case, the biochemically “hungry” mice — mice infused with ghrelin — performed notably better than those with normal levels of the hormone. The finding was startling, but “it makes sense,” Horvath says. “When you are hungry, you need to focus your entire system on finding food in the environment.” In fact, some biologists believe that human intelligence itself evolved because it made early hominids more effective hunters, gathers and foragers.

i know a LOT about hunger because i am ALWAYS hungry. as soon as the food is out of my bowl i start lurking around my sister's. whenever anyone is eating, my salivary glands are working overtime. this does explain my above-genius intelligence. however, before you naked apes get any bright ideas about starving me (i'm practically there) and making me write your papers, join the iraq study group, etc. just keep in mind, it is only my partially full belly that stands between you and total corgador domination. if get any smarter it is only a matter of time before i achieve my goal of a canine coup and subject you to my iron will. so keep the snacks coming if you know what's good for you.