Scientists have found brain circuits linked to eating impulses

Recently, researchers from the University of Georgia and other universities in the United States published an article on nature communications entitled "hypothalamus hippocampus circuit regulations impossibility via melanin concentrating hormone", which found a specific circuit in the brain that changes food impulsivity Behavioral impulses are common in a variety of mental and metabolic disorders The researchers identified the hypothalamic to peripheral pathways that regulate impulses, involving communication from the lateral hypothalamic neurons expressed in melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) to the ventral hippocampal subregion (VHP) The researchers found that both site-specific up-regulation (by pharmacological or chemical genetic action) and chronic down-regulation (by RNA interference) of MCH and VHP communication can increase the impulse response of rats, and interference in either direction can improve the impulse In addition, when MCH producing cells in the brain are activated, the animal's behavior towards food becomes more impulsive The results of other functional connectivity and neural pathway tracking analysis showed that the nucleus accumbens was the putative downstream target of VHP mch1 receptor expressing neurons This study found that the selective influence of food impulse circuit provides the possibility for the development of control of overeating therapy