Research: New achievements in neural circuit mechanisms of predation behavior

Predation is the main source of food for carnivores in nature, an evolutionarily conserved instinctual behavior driven by appetite and essential for animal survival

The lateral hypothalamic (LH) nuclei have long been considered to be the core brain region for regulating feeding behavior, and recent studies have gradually found that it is involved in regulating feeding behavior

This study revealed for the first time the role and characteristics of CaMKIIα ⁺ neurons in LH mediating predation behavior; and further used virus tracing and neural circuit regulation to reveal the medial preoptic area (MPOA) in the upstream brain region of LH CaMKIIα+ neurons.

Figure 1 LH CaMKIIα ⁺ neurons mediate programmed predator-like behavior

Figure 2 Summary of the work: The mechanism of MPOA-LH-vPAG loop regulating predation behavior

The first author of the paper is Tan Na, a doctoral student from the School of Pharmacy, Zhejiang University, and Professor Chen Zhong from the School of Pharmacy, Zhejiang University is the only corresponding author of this paper

Original link: https://spj.