ArticleNature communications2022
Stress-driven potentiation of lateral hypothalamic synapses onto ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons causes increased consumption of palatable food.
Article in Nature communications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond Pleasure: Unraveling the Multifaceted Role of Dopamine in Obesity and Metabolic Regulation.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- A hypothalamic circuit links hunger to mesolimbic dopamine to drive feeding.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Targeting dopamine transporter for treating social transmission of depression-like behaviors in male mice.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Methamphetamine potentiates the use of outcome-specific associations via a hypothalamic-dopamine circuit.Neuron · 2026Article
- Article
- A prefrontal cortex-lateral hypothalamus circuit controls stress-driven increased food intake.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Lateral hypothalamus directs stress-induced modulation of acute and psoriatic itch.Cell reports · 2026Article
- Translational Perspectives on Binge-Eating: Insights from Animal Models.Current psychiatry reports · 2026Review
- Dopamine D2 receptor modulation of insulin receptor signaling in the central amygdala: implications for compulsive-like eating behavior.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- New perspective on acupuncture treatment for obesity: mechanisms in the brain based on multidimensional neural circuits.American journal of translational research · 2026Review
- The mediating role of food craving in the relationship between psychological distress and body mass index in adults: a cross-sectional analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Exercise modulates food reward: neurobiological mechanisms and implications for weight management.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Influence of caloric restriction history, intermittent exposure to palatable food and sex in a binge eating model in C57BL/6J mice.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- A striosomal accumbens pathway drives stereotyped behavior through an aversive Esr1+ hypothalamic-habenula circuit.Science advances · 2025Article
- Comparative gene editing reduces dopamine receptor levels across rodent species.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Untangling the multifaceted VTA responses to stress.Trends in neurosciences · 2025Review
- Lateral hypothalamus and eating: cell types, molecular identity, anatomy, temporal dynamics and functional roles.Experimental & molecular medicine · 2025Review
- Distinct ventral tegmental area neuronal ensembles are indispensable for reward-driven approach and stress-driven avoidance behaviors.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Cross-species dissection of the modular role of the ventral tegmental area in depressive disorders.Neuroscience · 2025Review
- Transient impact of chronic social stress on effort-based reward motivation in non-food restricted mice: Involvement of corticosterone.Neurobiology of stress · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Stress can cause overconsumption of palatable high caloric food. Despite the important role of stress eating in obesity and (binge) eating disorders, its underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. Here we demonstrate in mice that stress alters lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) control over the ventral tegmental area (VTA), thereby promoting overconsumption of palatable food. Specifically, we show that glutamatergic LHA neurons projecting to the VTA are activated by social stress, after which their synapses onto dopamine neurons are potentiated via AMPA receptor subunit alterations. We find that stress-driven strengthening of these specific synapses increases LHA control over dopamine output in key target areas like the prefrontal cortex. Finally, we demonstrate that while inducing LHA-VTA glutamatergic potentiation increases palatable fat intake, reducing stress-driven potentiation of this connection prevents such stress eating. Overall, this study provides insights in the neural circuit adaptations caused by stress that drive overconsumption of palatable food.
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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.