Sunday, August 31, 2025
Science
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag
No Result
View All Result
Home Science News Medicine

Eating for necessity or pleasure? There is a brain circuit for that

August 8, 2024
in Medicine
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Eating for necessity or pleasure? There is a brain circuit for that
67
SHARES
608
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
ADVERTISEMENT

People eat either because they are hungry or for pleasure, even in the absence of hunger. While hunger-driven eating is fundamental for survival, pleasure-driven feeding may accelerate the onset of obesity and associated metabolic disorders. A study published in Nature Metabolism reveals neural circuits in the mouse brain that promote hunger-driven feeding and suppress pleasure-driven eating. The findings open new possibilities for developing strategies to combat obesity.

People eat either because they are hungry or for pleasure, even in the absence of hunger. While hunger-driven eating is fundamental for survival, pleasure-driven feeding may accelerate the onset of obesity and associated metabolic disorders. A study published in Nature Metabolism reveals neural circuits in the mouse brain that promote hunger-driven feeding and suppress pleasure-driven eating. The findings open new possibilities for developing strategies to combat obesity.

“Ideal feeding habits would balance eating for necessity and for pleasure, minimizing the latter,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Yong Xu, professor of pediatrics – nutrition and associate director for basic sciences at the USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine. “In this study we identified a group of neurons that regulates balanced feeding in the brain.”

Previous studies have highlighted the role of neurons identified by the GABAergic proenkephalin (Penk) marker, an endogenous opioid hormone, on feeding and body weight balance. However, their contribution to regulating hunger- and pleasure-driven feeding had not been elucidated.

In this study, Xu and his colleagues showed that activation of Penk neurons in the brain region called diagonal band of Broca (DBB) of male mice supports an ideal feeding pattern, increasing hunger-driven feeding while reducing pleasure-driven eating.

“I was surprised by this finding,” Xu said. “We and other groups had previously shown that certain groups of neurons affect both feeding types in the same way – they either increase or decrease both types. Here we found that activating DBB-Penk neurons has opposite effects in the two types of feeding, they increase hunger-driven feeding while decreasing eating for pleasure.”

The researchers investigated the mechanism mediating these opposite effects. They discovered that DBB-Penk neurons project into two different brain areas, one regulates hunger-driven feeding and the other controls pleasure-driven eating.

“A subset of DBB-Penk neurons that projects to the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus is preferentially activated upon food presentation during fasting periods, facilitating hunger-driven feeding,” Xu said. “On the other hand, a separate subset of DBB-Penk neurons that projects to a different brain region, the lateral hypothalamus, is preferentially activated when detecting high-fat, high-sugar (HFHS) foods and inhibits their consumption. This is the first study to show a neural circuit that is activated by a reward, HFHS, but leads to terminating instead of continuing the pleasurable activity.”

Strikingly, mice in which the entire DBB-Penk population had been eliminated, when given free choice of chow and HFHS diets, reduced consumption of chow but increased intake of the HFHS diet, resulting in accelerated development of obesity and metabolic disturbances.

“Our findings indicate that the development of obesity is associated with impaired function of some of these brain circuits in mice,” Xu said. “We are interested in further investigating molecular markers within the circuits that could be suitable targets for treatment of human diseases such as obesity.”

Other contributors to this work include Hailan Liu, Yongxiang Li, Meng Yu, Olivia Z. Ginnard, Kristine M. Conde, Mengjie Wang, Xing Fang, Hesong Liu, Longlong Tu, Na Yin, Jonathan C. Bean, Junying Han, Yongjie Yang, Qingchun Tong, Benjamin R. Arenkiel, Chunmei Wang and co-corresponding author Yang He, at Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital. The authors are affiliated with one of the following institutions: Baylor College of Medicine, Baylor’s USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital and University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

This study was supported by grants from the USDA/CRIS (51000-064-01S, 3092-51000-062-04(B)S), Texas Children’s Research Scholar funds, American Heart Association (23POST1030352) and NIH NIDDK (1F32DK134121-01A1).

###



Journal

Nature Metabolism

DOI

10.1038/s42255-024-01099-4

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Distinct basal forebrain-originated neural circuits promote homoeostatic feeding and suppress hedonic feeding in male mice

Article Publication Date

7-Aug-2024

Share27Tweet17
Previous Post

Tpex cells: the game-changer in targeted tumor immunotherapy

Next Post

Researchers develop stress-free method to weigh mice using computer vision

Related Posts

blank
Medicine

Japanese Patients’ Preferences for Lipid-Lowering Injections

August 31, 2025
blank
Medicine

Scaling Evidence-Based Health Interventions in Africa: A Dialogue

August 31, 2025
blank
Medicine

GPER: Key Role in Metabolism and Disease Management

August 31, 2025
blank
Medicine

Movement Plus Exercise Outperforms Exercise Alone in Pain Relief

August 31, 2025
blank
Medicine

New Insights into Pyroptosis Inhibition via Dihydropyrazine Derivatives

August 31, 2025
blank
Medicine

Advances in Bioengineering for Beta-Cell Replacement

August 31, 2025
Next Post
Weighing mice using computer vision

Researchers develop stress-free method to weigh mice using computer vision

  • Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds NTU Singapore study

    Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds NTU Singapore study

    27542 shares
    Share 11014 Tweet 6884
  • University of Seville Breaks 120-Year-Old Mystery, Revises a Key Einstein Concept

    955 shares
    Share 382 Tweet 239
  • Bee body mass, pathogens and local climate influence heat tolerance

    642 shares
    Share 257 Tweet 161
  • Researchers record first-ever images and data of a shark experiencing a boat strike

    509 shares
    Share 204 Tweet 127
  • Warm seawater speeding up melting of ‘Doomsday Glacier,’ scientists warn

    313 shares
    Share 125 Tweet 78
Science

Embark on a thrilling journey of discovery with Scienmag.com—your ultimate source for cutting-edge breakthroughs. Immerse yourself in a world where curiosity knows no limits and tomorrow’s possibilities become today’s reality!

RECENT NEWS

  • Japanese Patients’ Preferences for Lipid-Lowering Injections
  • Scaling Evidence-Based Health Interventions in Africa: A Dialogue
  • GPER: Key Role in Metabolism and Disease Management
  • UBAP2L Deficiency Limits Colorectal Cancer Growth and Resistance

Categories

  • Agriculture
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Athmospheric
  • Biology
  • Blog
  • Bussines
  • Cancer
  • Chemistry
  • Climate
  • Earth Science
  • Marine
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine
  • Pediatry
  • Policy
  • Psychology & Psychiatry
  • Science Education
  • Social Science
  • Space
  • Technology and Engineering

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 5,182 other subscribers

© 2025 Scienmag - Science Magazine

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US

© 2025 Scienmag - Science Magazine

Discover more from Science

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading