While seeking out and consuming caloric substances is essential for survival, specific brain circuits that control adaptive food seeking as well as consumption, likely become dysregulated to promote a variety of maladaptive behaviors such as addiction and binge eating. Thus, experiments designed to further understand the specific neural circuit components that control food consumption and reinforcement are of critical importance for identifying important novel targets for the development of future treatments for eating disorders. Here we propose to study the precise neural circuits of the lateral hypothalamus that regulate natural reward seeking and consumption. We plan to map the precise circuit connectivity and function between genetically defined neuronal populations of the lateral hypothalamus and afferent and efferent structures, as well to characterize the neuronal activity patterns within these circuits during reward seeking and consumption behaviors. We will also test of the necessity and sufficiency of precise circuit elements to these processes. Collectively, these experiments will elucidate the precise neural circuits that interface the laterl hypothalamus with other brain structure to orchestrate reward processing. These experiments will likely uncover many novel circuits critical for reward seeking and consumption to target for future therapeutic interventions for neuropsychiatric disorders such as addiction and depression, as well eating disorders and obesity.

Public Health Relevance

Psychiatric and neurological diseases and disorders have a tremendous impact on society. Despite improved diagnosis and treatment, further advancement is significantly hindered by a lack of understanding how alterations in neural circuit function leads to the development and expression of disease states. The research directions outlined in this proposal will characterize the function of key neural circuits that are involved in psychiatri disease such as substance abuse disorders and eating disorders. We aim to study these neural circuit elements in order to identify potentially novel therapeutic targets for the treatment neuropsychiatric disorders.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DA038168-03
Application #
9102036
Study Section
Neurobiology of Motivated Behavior Study Section (NMB)
Program Officer
Pariyadath, Vani
Project Start
2014-07-01
Project End
2019-06-30
Budget Start
2016-07-01
Budget End
2017-06-30
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2016
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
608195277
City
Chapel Hill
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27599
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