Analysis of insular output pathway for food anticipation

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K21247
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Basic / Social brain science; Neurophysiology / General neuroscience
• Research Institution: Kagoshima University
• Principal Investigator: KUSUMOTO Ikue 鹿児島大学, 医歯学域医学系, 助教 (80724757)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 島皮質 / 摂食行動 / 食欲 / 神経回路

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Food deprivation or natural hunger produce a drive to seek and consume food. Cortical regulation of this motivation remains poorly understood. We used optogenetics to characterize functional importance of anatomical connection to and/or from insular cortex in mice. Several hypothalamic areas are known for its function to modulate eating behavior. Among all those areas Orexin neurons which are mainly located in lateral part of the hypothalamus has been implicated in not only food intake but also motivational aspect of eating behavior. We thus examined appetitive effect of orexin input to the insular cortex.

Free Research Field

神経科学