ArticleInternational journal of obesity (2005)2017
Does activation of midbrain dopamine neurons promote or reduce feeding?
Article in International journal of obesity (2005), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- Lactation increases food seeking and palatable feeding through mesolimbic dopamine signaling in mice.Cell reports · 2026Article
- Neural circuits regulating activity-based anorexia.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Mesolimbic dopamine signaling mediates increased hedonic feeding and food seeking in lactating mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Reduced Ventral Tegmental Area GABA neuron output contributes to hyperactivity in the activity-based anorexia model in female mice.Nature communications · 2025Article
- A lateralized pathway for associating nutrients with flavors.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Elevated activity of the mesolimbic dopamine system promotes feeding during pregnancy in mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Hedonic eating is controlled by dopamine neurons that oppose GLP-1R satiety.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Dopamine Drives Feedforward Inhibition to Orexin Feeding System, Mediating Weight Loss Induced by Morphine Addiction.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Mouse developmental defects, but not paraganglioma tumorigenesis, upon conditional Complex II loss in early Sox10FASEB bioAdvances · 2024Article
- Stress-impaired reward pathway promotes distinct feeding behavior patterns.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Article
- Zona incerta dopamine neurons encode motivational vigor in food seeking.Science advances · 2023Article
- A STIM dependent dopamine-neuropeptide axis maintains the larval drive to feed and grow in Drosophila.PLoS genetics · 2023Article
- Selective Modulation of Hippocampal Theta Oscillations in Response to Morphine versus Natural Reward.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Somatodendritic Release of Cholecystokinin Potentiates GABAergic Synapses Onto Ventral Tegmental Area Dopamine Cells.Biological psychiatry · 2023Article
- Food-induced dopamine signaling in AgRP neurons promotes feeding.Cell reports · 2022Article
- Oxytocin Receptor-Expressing Neurons in the Paraventricular Thalamus Regulate Feeding Motivation through Excitatory Projections to the Nucleus Accumbens Core.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2022Article
- A D2 to D1 shift in dopaminergic inputs to midbrain 5-HT neurons causes anorexia in mice.Nature neuroscience · 2022Article
- Activation of ventral tegmental area neurotensin Receptor-1 neurons promotes weight loss.Neuropharmacology · 2021Article
- A hindbrain dopaminergic neural circuit prevents weight gain by reinforcing food satiation.Science advances · 2021Article
- When to Stop Eating: An Auxiliary Brake on Food Consumption from the Nucleus Accumbens.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDopamine (DA) signalling in the brain is necessary for feeding behaviour, and alterations in the DA system have been linked to obesity. However, the precise role of DA in the control of food intake remains debated. On the one hand, food reward and motivation are associated with enhanced DA activity. On the other hand, psychostimulant drugs that increase DA signalling suppress food intake. This poses the questions of how endogenous DA neuronal activity regulates feeding, and whether enhancing DA neuronal activity would either promote or reduce food intake.
methodsHere, we used designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADD) technology to determine the effects of enhancing DA neuronal activity on feeding behaviour. We chemogenetically activated selective midbrain DA neuronal subpopulations and assessed the effects on feeding microstructure in rats.
resultsTreatment with the psychostimulant drug amphetamine or the selective DA reuptake inhibitor GBR 12909 significantly suppressed food intake. Selective chemogenetic activation of DA neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) was found to reduce meal size, but had less impact on total food intake. Targeting distinct VTA neuronal pathways revealed that specific activation of the mesolimbic pathway towards nucleus accumbens (NAc) resulted in smaller and shorter meals. In addition, the meal frequency was increased, rendering total food intake unaffected. The disrupted feeding patterns following activation of VTA DA neurons or VTA to NAc projection neurons were accompanied by locomotor hyperactivity. Activation of VTA neurons projecting towards prefrontal cortex or amygdala, or of DA neurons in the substantia nigra, did not affect feeding behaviour.
conclusionsChemogenetic 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.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.