Does activation of midbrain dopamine neurons promote or reduce feeding?

Abstract

Chemogenetic activation of VTA DA neurons or VTA to NAc pathway disrupts feeding patterns. Increased activity of mesolimbic DA neurons appears to both promote and reduce food intake, by facilitating both the initiation and cessation of feeding behaviour.

Divergent mesolimbic dopamine circuits support alcohol-seeking triggered by discrete cues and contexts

“…These counts produced an average selectivity of mCherry-expression for TH positive cells of 95.8% and a transfection efficiency of 24.8% ( Fig. 4c), which are comparable to similar measures of selectivity in TH::Cre rats 20,[31][32][33][34][35] . We also observed mCherry expressing TH positive processes in the NAc (Fig.…”

Amphetamine primes enhanced motivation toward uncertain choices in rats with genetic alcohol preference

“…Both AA and Wistar rats very willingly consumed a large number of sucrose pellets even under ad libitum feeding of regular chow. Despite this, the D-amphetamine caused significant reduction in sucrose consumption in the satiety test, which was exactly what was predicted based on our previous study (Oinio et al 2017) and by the literature, because Damphetamine is a drug known to induce anorexic effects (Wise 2006;Melrose et al 2016;Boekhoudt et al 2017). It can be clearly seen in both strains that D-amphetamine reduced sucrose intake dose dependently, and the highest dose almost abolishes sucrose eating totally.…”

Modulating Dopamine Signaling and Behavior with Chemogenetics: Concepts, Progress, and Challenges

“…They found that general stimulation of hM3Dq in VTA reduced meal size, while at the same time increasing locomotor activity. Specific mesolimbic pathway DA activation disrupted feeding patterns by reducing mean meal size and duration but increased the frequency of meal initiations (Boekhoudt et al, 2017a). Although, the mesolimbic DA pathway seemed to both promote and reduce food intake in that study by facilitating feeding initiation and cessation behaviors (Boekhoudt et al, 2017a), chemogenetic stimulation in the same mesolimbic pathway in another study prevented anorexic weight loss in an activity-based rat model of anorexia (Foldi et al, 2017).…”

“…It is widely believed that the DA mesolimbic pathway facilitates associative learning between food-related rewards and feedingrelated environments, with food or food-related cues initiating phasic mesolimbic DAergic firing and behaviors associated with acquiring food (Baik, 2013). Boekhoudt et al (2017a) investigated whether chemogenetic activation of midbrain DAergic neurons promoted or reduced feeding to establish a causal relationship between DAergic activity and food intake. They measured home-cage feeding patterns while concurrently stimulating hM3Dq in the SN pars compacta or selective VTA subpopulation projections toward the NAc, amygdala, or PFC.…”

“…Specific mesolimbic pathway DA activation disrupted feeding patterns by reducing mean meal size and duration but increased the frequency of meal initiations (Boekhoudt et al, 2017a). Although, the mesolimbic DA pathway seemed to both promote and reduce food intake in that study by facilitating feeding initiation and cessation behaviors (Boekhoudt et al, 2017a), chemogenetic stimulation in the same mesolimbic pathway in another study prevented anorexic weight loss in an activity-based rat model of anorexia (Foldi et al, 2017). When rats were given time-limited daily access to food, hM3Dq stimulation of VTA DAergic neurons projecting to the NAc increased food intake and food anticipatory activity and blocked anhedonia-associated weight loss and subsequent death (Foldi et al, 2017).…”