Center for Neuroscience and Department of Anesthesiology of Second Affiliated Hospital, NHC and CAMS Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 310058, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 1 King's College Circle, Toronto, ON, M5S 1A8, Canada.
Nat Commun. 2020 Jan 31;11(1):640. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-14281-5.
Reduced food intake is common to many pathological conditions, such as infection and toxin exposure. However, cortical circuits that mediate feeding responses to these threats are less investigated. The anterior insular cortex (aIC) is a core region that integrates interoceptive states and emotional awareness and consequently guides behavioral responses. Here, we demonstrate that the right-side aIC CamKII (aIC) neurons in mice are activated by aversive visceral signals. Hyperactivation of the right-side aIC neurons attenuates food consumption, while inhibition of these neurons increases feeding and reverses aversive stimuli-induced anorexia and weight loss. Similar manipulation at the left-side aIC does not cause significant behavioral changes. Furthermore, virus tracing reveals that aIC neurons project directly to the vGluT2 neurons in the lateral hypothalamus (LH), and the right-side aIC-to-LH pathway mediates feeding suppression. Our studies uncover a circuit from the cortex to the hypothalamus that senses aversive visceral signals and controls feeding behavior.
进食减少常见于许多病理状况，如感染和毒素暴露。然而，介导这些威胁的进食反应的皮质回路则较少被研究。前岛叶皮层（aIC）是一个整合内脏感觉状态和情绪意识的核心区域，因此指导行为反应。在这里，我们证明了小鼠右侧 aIC CamKII（aIC）神经元被厌恶的内脏信号激活。右侧 aIC 神经元的过度激活会抑制食物摄入，而抑制这些神经元则会增加进食，并逆转厌恶刺激引起的厌食和体重减轻。左侧 aIC 的类似操作不会引起明显的行为变化。此外，病毒追踪显示 aIC 神经元直接投射到外侧下丘脑（LH）中的 vGluT2 神经元，而右侧 aIC 到 LH 的通路介导了摄食抑制。我们的研究揭示了一条从大脑皮层到下丘脑的回路，该回路感知厌恶的内脏信号并控制进食行为。
