The inhibitory circuit architecture of the lateral hypothalamus orchestrates feeding.
The growing prevalence of overeating disorders is a key contributor to the worldwide obesity epidemic. Dysfunction of particular neural circuits may trigger deviations from adaptive feeding behaviors. The lateral hypothalamus (LH) is a crucial neural substrate for motivated behavior, including feeding, but the precise functional neurocircuitry that controls LH neuronal activity to engage feeding has not been defined. We observed that inhibitory synaptic inputs from the extended amygdala preferentially innervate and suppress the activity of LH glutamatergic neurons to control food intake. These findings help explain how dysregulated activity at a number of unique nodes can result in a cascading failure within a defined brain network to produce maladaptive feeding.
Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Joshua H
JH
Jennings
Giorgio
G
Rizzi
Alice M
AM
Stamatakis
Randall L
RL
Ung
Garret D
GD
Stuber
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000075402:Channelrhodopsins; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D059330:GABAergic Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000502:physiology*; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008817:Mice, Mutant Strains; D009765:Obesity / Q000503:physiopathology; D012686:Septal Nuclei / Q000502:physiology; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D000075402:Channelrhodopsins; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; C054562:yellow fluorescent protein, Bacteria; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid