Lateral Hypothalamic Circuits for Feeding and Reinforcement

描述（由申请人提供）：虽然寻找和消耗热量物质对生存至关重要，但控制适应性食物寻找和消耗的特定大脑回路可能会失调，从而促进各种适应不良行为，如成瘾和暴食。因此，旨在进一步了解控制食物消耗和强化的特定神经回路组件的实验对于确定未来治疗饮食失调的重要新靶点至关重要。在这里，我们建议研究下丘脑外侧的精确神经回路，调节自然的奖励寻求和消费。我们计划绘制精确的电路连接和功能之间的遗传定义的神经元群体的外侧下丘脑和传入和传出结构，以及表征这些电路内的神经元活动模式在奖励寻求和消费行为。我们还将测试这些过程中精密电路元件的必要性和充分性。总的来说，这些实验将阐明下丘脑与其他大脑结构之间的精确神经回路，以协调奖励处理。这些实验可能会发现许多对奖励寻求和消费至关重要的新回路，以针对未来的神经精神疾病（如成瘾和抑郁症）以及饮食失调和肥胖症的治疗干预。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): While seeking out and consuming caloric substances is essential for survival, specific brain circuits that control adaptive food seeking as well as consumption, likely become dysregulated to promote a variety of maladaptive behaviors such as addiction and binge eating. Thus, experiments designed to further understand the specific neural circuit components that control food consumption and reinforcement are of critical importance for identifying important novel targets for the development of future treatments for eating disorders. Here we propose to study the precise neural circuits of the lateral hypothalamus that regulate natural reward seeking and consumption. We plan to map the precise circuit connectivity and function between genetically defined neuronal populations of the lateral hypothalamus and afferent and efferent structures, as well to characterize the neuronal activity patterns within these circuits during reward seeking and consumption behaviors. We will also test of the necessity and sufficiency of precise circuit elements to these processes. Collectively, these experiments will elucidate the precise neural circuits that interface the laterl hypothalamus with other brain structure to orchestrate reward processing. These experiments will likely uncover many novel circuits critical for reward seeking and consumption to target for future therapeutic interventions for neuropsychiatric disorders such as addiction and depression, as well eating disorders and obesity.