The Cells That Tell You to Stop Eating Are Not the Ones Scientists Spent Decades Studying

For most of the last half-century, the story of appetite has been a story about neurons. Hunger neurons fire; fullness neurons fire back; hormones from the gut and fat tissue tip the balance. Drugs like semaglutide were built on that map.

Two studies published this spring suggest the map was missing several of its busiest intersections, and that one of them does not involve neurons at all.