A neural circuit for excessive feeding driven by environmental context in mice

Despite notable genetic influences, obesity mainly results from the overconsumption of food, which arises from the interplay of physiological, cognitive and environmental factors. In patients with obesity, eating is determined more by external cues than by internal physiological needs. However, how...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature neuroscience 2021-08, Vol.24 (8), p.1132-1141
Main Authors: Mohammad, Hasan, Senol, Esra, Graf, Martin, Lee, Chun-Yao, Li, Qin, Liu, Qing, Yeo, Xin Yi, Wang, Menghan, Laskaratos, Achilleas, Xu, Fuqiang, Luo, Sarah Xinwei, Jung, Sangyong, Augustine, George J, Fu, Yu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Brain research
Circuits
Cognitive ability
Context
Cues
Environmental factors
Feeding
Feeding Behavior - physiology
Food
Food habits
Hippocampus
Hypothalamus
Hypothalamus - physiology
Male
Mice
Neural circuitry
Neural Pathways - physiology
Neurons
Neurons - physiology
Obesity
Physiological aspects
Physiological effects
Physiology
Psychological aspects
Somatostatin
Somatostatin - metabolism
Subiculum
Synaptic transmission
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Despite notable genetic influences, obesity mainly results from the overconsumption of food, which arises from the interplay of physiological, cognitive and environmental factors. In patients with obesity, eating is determined more by external cues than by internal physiological needs. However, how environmental context drives non-homeostatic feeding is elusive. Here, we identify a population of somatostatin ( SST) neurons in the mouse hypothalamic tuberal nucleus that are preferentially activated by palatable food. Activation of SST neurons enabled a context to drive non-homeostatic feeding in sated mice and required inputs from the subiculum. Pairing a context with palatable food greatly potentiated synaptic transmission between the subiculum and SST neurons and drove non-homeostatic feeding that could be selectively suppressed by inhibiting SST neurons or the subiculum but not other major orexigenic neurons. These results reveal how palatable food, through a specific hypothalamic circuit, empowers environmental context to drive non-homeostatic feeding.
ISSN:1097-6256
1546-1726
DOI:10.1038/s41593-021-00875-9