Optogenetic Activation of a Lateral Hypothalamic-Ventral Tegmental Drive-Reward Pathway.

ABSTRACT: Electrical stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus can motivate feeding or can serve as a reward in its own right. It remains unclear whether the same or independent but anatomically overlapping circuitries mediate the two effects. Electrical stimulation findings implicate medial forebrain bundle (MFB) fibers of passage in both effects, and optogenetic studies confirm a contribution from fibers originating in the lateral hypothalamic area and projecting to or through the ventral tegmental area. Here we report that optogenetic activation of ventral tegmental fibers from cells of origin in more anterior or posterior portions of the MFB failed to induce either reward or feeding. The feeding and reward induced by optogenetic activation of fibers from the lateral hypothalamic cells of origin we

SUBMITTER: Gigante ED 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4936707 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature