Neuronal mechanisms for the odor induced eating behaviors in the olfactory cortex

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K14557
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Neurophysiology / General neuroscience
• Research Institution: Doshisha University
• Principal Investigator: Manabe Hiroyuki 同志社大学, 研究開発推進機構, 准教授 (80511386)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 嗅覚 / 摂食行動 / 嗅皮質 / Tenia Tecta

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Central olfactory system translates odor information into motivated behaviors including appetitive food approach and eating behaviors. However, it is still unknown how the olfactory cortex controls eating-related behaviors in mammals. We performed retrograde tracing from the mouse lateral hypothalamus, and found that a group of inhibitory cells were clustered in a ventral region of the olfactory peduncle. We named this region as the ventral olfactory nucleus.
To reveal a role of feeding-related behaviors of vTT, we recorded spike activities in the vTT during the eating-related behaviors. We found that vTT neurons respond to distinct behavioral states of feeding behavior. These results suggest that olfactory cortex has an important role for odor induced eating behaviors.

Free Research Field

神経科学