“Then, scientists genetically removed D2Rs from the striatum of lean mice to determine if there was a causal link between D2Rs and inactivity. Researchers then placed the lean mice on a high-fat diet.

Surprisingly, they found that these mice did not gain more weight, despite their physical inactivity.

This suggests that although deficits in striatal D2R contribute to physical inactivity in obesity, such inactivity is more “a consequence than a cause of obesity,” as the authors put it.”