TRR 134: Ingestive Behaviour: Homeostasis and Reward

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The incidence and prevalence of obesity continues to rise and is particularly observed in populations that are exposed to an unprecedented abundance of food. Against this background, it represents an urgent task to unravel the central nervous mechanisms that act to integrate the homeostatic and reward-associated neurocircuits encoding the behavioural portfolio relevant for food choice and intake. Based on the significant and exciting progress made in the first funding period, we will now expand our conceptual approach and efforts to systematically move towards a more system-based and translational research programme. To this end, we will position our goal to decipher the interaction between homeostatic and reward circuits in a broader context with regards to neuronal and functional interactions (level A). The analysis of this crosstalk will also include relevant models of social interaction and cue triggered/external eating behaviour in a more clinically oriented translational context (level B). Clearly defined intervention strategies to enable tackling these problems through neuromodulation, pharmacological means or targeted neurosurgical approaches will be employed (level C). Finally, human studies within the T-CRC will now benefit from a pheno- and genotypically well-characterized cohort in the Z2 project. The recruitment of normal individuals and individuals which are environmentally or genetically prone to altered eating behaviour is clearly essential for the experimental paradigms and targeted interventions of the next funding period.