News Neuroscience Mouse brains hint at why it’s so hard to forget food poisoning Flavor memories first processed in the amygdala help mice avoid foods that once made them sick When mice encounter an unfamiliar food, neurons in a brain region called the amygdala light up (blue). If the mice start feeling sick after the meal, the same neurons get reinforced to help the mouse remember — and avoid — the troublesome taste in the future. Princeton University By Elise Cutts 1 hour ago Food poisoning isn’t an experience you’re likely to forget — and now, scientists know why. A study published April 2 in Nature has unraveled neural circuitry in mice that makes food poisoning so memorable. “We’ve all experienced food poisoning at some point … And not only is it terrible in the moment, but it leads us to not eat those foods again,” says Christopher Zimmerman of Princeton University. Luckily, developing a distaste for foul food doesn’t take much practice — one ill-fated encounter with an undercooked enchilada or contaminated hamburger is enough, even if it takes hours or days for symptoms to set in. The same is true for other animals, making food poisoning one of the best ways to study how our brains connect events separated in time, says neuroscientist Richard Palmiter of the University of Washington in Seattle. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.