| First Author | Barbano MF | Year | 2024 |
| Journal | Nat Commun | Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 403 |
| PubMed ID | 38195566 | Mgi Jnum | J:344377 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:7575169 | Doi | 10.1038/s41467-023-44633-w |
| Citation | Barbano MF, et al. (2024) Lateral hypothalamic glutamatergic inputs to VTA glutamatergic neurons mediate prioritization of innate defensive behavior over feeding. Nat Commun 15(1):403 |
| abstractText | The lateral hypothalamus (LH) is involved in feeding behavior and defense responses by interacting with different brain structures, including the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA). Emerging evidence indicates that LH-glutamatergic neurons infrequently synapse on VTA-dopamine neurons but preferentially establish multiple synapses on VTA-glutamatergic neurons. Here, we demonstrated that LH-glutamatergic inputs to VTA promoted active avoidance, long-term aversion, and escape attempts. By testing feeding in the presence of a predator, we observed that ongoing feeding was decreased, and that this predator-induced decrease in feeding was abolished by photoinhibition of the LH-glutamatergic inputs to VTA. By VTA specific neuronal ablation, we established that predator-induced decreases in feeding were mediated by VTA-glutamatergic neurons but not by dopamine or GABA neurons. Thus, we provided evidence for an unanticipated neuronal circuitry between LH-glutamatergic inputs to VTA-glutamatergic neurons that plays a role in prioritizing escape, and in the switch from feeding to escape in mice. |
