Feeding and Reward Are Differentially Induced by Activating GABAergic Lateral Hypothalamic Projections to VTA.
Electrical stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus (LH) has two motivational effects: long trains of stimulation induce drive-like effects such as eating, and short trains are rewarding. It has not been clear whether a single set of activated fibers subserves the two effects. Previous optogenetic stimulation studies have confirmed that reinforcement and induction of feeding can each be induced by selective stimulation of GABAergic fibers originating in the bed nucleus of the LH and projecting to the ventral tegmental area (VTA). In the present study we determined the optimal stimulation parameters for each of the two optogenetically induced effects in food-sated mice. Stimulation-induced eating was strongest with 5 Hz and progressively weaker with 10 and 20 Hz. Stimulation-induced reward was strongest with 40 Hz and progressively weaker with lower or higher frequencies. Mean preferred duration for continuous 40 Hz stimulation was 61.6 s in a "real-time" place preference task; mean preferred duration for 5 Hz stimulation was 45.6 s. The differential effects of high- and low-frequency stimulation of this pathway seem most likely to be due to differential effects on downstream targets.
['Barbano|M Flavia|MF|', 'Wang|Hui-Ling|HL|', 'Morales|Marisela|M|', 'Wise|Roy A|RA|']
D000818:Animals D000075402:Channelrhodopsins D003216:Conditioning, Operant D004435:Eating D004558:Electric Stimulation D005247:Feeding Behavior D018682:GABA Agents D059330:GABAergic Neurons D007026:Hypothalamic Area, Lateral D008297:Male D051379:Mice D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL D008822:Mice, Transgenic D062308:Optogenetics D010775:Photic Stimulation D011963:Receptors, GABA-A D012201:Reward D012653:Self Stimulation D017557:Ventral Tegmental Area D050495:Vesicular Inhibitory Amino Acid Transport Proteins
feeding reward lateral hypothalamus optogenetics ventral tegmental area GABA