Control of food approach and eating by a GABAergic projection from lateral hypothalamus to dorsal pons.

ABSTRACT: Electrical or optogenetic stimulation of lateral hypothalamic (LH) GABA neurons induces rapid vigorous eating in sated animals. The dopamine system has been implicated in the regulation of feeding. Previous work has suggested that a subset of LH GABA neurons projects to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and targets GABA neurons, inhibiting them and thereby disinhibiting dopaminergic activity and release. Furthermore, stimulation-induced eating is attenuated by dopamine lesions or receptor antagonists. Here we explored the involvement of dopamine in LH stimulation-induced eating. LH stimulation caused sated mice to pick up pellets of standard chow with latencies that varied based on stimulation intensity; once food was picked up, animals ate for the remainder of the 60-s stimulation period.

SUBMITTER: Marino RAM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7165479 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature