ArticleScience advances2026
The gut-brain vagal axis governs mesolimbic dopamine dynamics and reward events.
Article in Science advances, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- The claustrum encodes and scales appetitive feeding.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Catecholamine metabolism revisited: from neurochemistry to integrative physiology and pathophysiology.Physiological reviews · 2026Review
- Synergistic Intervention for Obesity: Integrating Central Appetite Regulation and Peripheral Energy Expenditure.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- Electroacupuncture prevents CUMS induced depressive-like behaviors by inhibiting microglia-mediated synaptic pruning induced by gut dysbiosis.Chinese medicine · 2026Article
- Glucagon-like Peptide-1 and Dual GIP/GLP-1 Receptor Agonists in Brain: Exploring the Expanding Role and Safety in Neuropsychiatry.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- The Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis in Insomnia: Mechanisms and Intervention Strategies.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Aerobic exercise for substance use disorders: therapeutic effects and underlying mechanisms.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- Gut-to-brain interoceptive pathways in emotion-related behaviors.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2026Review
- Craving fullness: a fullness-seeking phenotype that blurs the line between binge eating disorder and food addiction.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
16 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Reward processes have traditionally been ascribed to dopamine (DA)-associated circuits. While external stimuli, such as food and drugs of abuse, are activators of DA-neuron activity, growing evidence indicates that interoceptive signals also play a critical role. Among these, the gut-brain vagal axis has emerged as a key regulator, although its precise contribution to mesolimbic DA signaling and behavior remains unclear. Here, we combine complementary ex vivo and in vivo approaches across multiple scales to show that gut-brain vagal tone is essential for gating mesolimbic DA system activity and functions, modulating DA-dependent molecular and cellular processes, and scaling both food- and drug-induced reinforcement. These findings challenge the traditional brain-centric view of reward processing, supporting a more integrated model in which vagus-mediated interoceptive signals intrinsically shape motivation and reinforcement. By uncovering the influence of gut-brain vagal communication on DA functions, this work provides insights into the neurobiology of adaptive and maladaptive reward, with broad relevance for eating disorders and addiction.
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Registered trials
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.