Researchers identify brain region linked to satiety

Feeling full after a meal is healthy and normal, but the reasons for this feeling are complex and not well understood

Currently, there are six drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for weight control, but they often have side effects

"When we can more precisely target the part of the brain responsible for satiety, we can create treatments with fewer side effects," said the study's lead author Haijiang Cai, an associate professor in the School of Neuroscience

Previous research has mapped the satiety circuit to the brain's amygdala center, which also controls fear, pain and other strong emotions

Cai and his team found that after the amygdala, signals are sent to a neuron located in the brain called the parahypothalamic nucleus (PSTh), which is responsible for satiety

Here's how they do it: First, they know that the gut-secreted hormone cholecystokinin (CCK) tells the brain "I'm full" after a meal

In a mouse model, the researchers determined that neurons activated by CCK and PKC-delta neurons were located in the parathalamic nucleus

The brain's PSTh region was first discovered by Chinese scientists in the 1990s and introduced into English-language scientific literature in 2004, but its function is unknown

"We found that neurons in this region are required for CCK saturation to inhibit feeding," Cai said

Feeling content is so important that Cai suspects it is mediated by one area of ​​the brain; more likely, multiple areas of the brain work together

Cai started studying the neural circuits of eating because he was intrigued by the role emotions play in our eating habits

"We know eating and mood are different behaviors, but they interact closely with each other," he said

article title

Dissecting a disynaptic central amygdala-parasubthalamic nucleus neural circuit that mediates cholecystokinin-induced eating suppression