The anterior insular cortex unilaterally controls feeding in response to aversive visceral stimuli in mice

Abstract

Reduced food intake is common to many pathological conditions, such as infection and toxin exposure. However, cortical circuits that mediate feeding responses to these threats are less investigated. The anterior insular cortex (aIC) is a core region that integrates interoceptive states and emotional awareness and consequently guides behavioral responses. Here, we demonstrate that the right-side aIC CamKII+ (aICCamKII) neurons in mice are activated by aversive visceral signals. Hyperactivation of the right-side aICCamKII neurons attenuates food consumption, while inhibition of these neurons increases feeding and reverses aversive stimuli-induced anorexia and weight loss. Similar manipulation at the left-side aIC does not cause significant behavioral changes. Furthermore, virus tracing reveals that aICCamKII neurons project directly to the vGluT2+ neurons in the lateral hypothalamus (LH), and the right-side aICCamKII-to-LH pathway mediates feeding suppression. Our studies uncover a circuit from the cortex to the hypothalamus that senses aversive visceral signals and controls feeding behavior.

Transcriptional, Behavioral and Biochemical Profiling in the 3xTg-AD Mouse Model Reveals a Specific Signature of Amyloid Deposition and Functional Decline in Alzheimer’s Disease

“…Here we use the CTA learning paradigm as a simple, robust and experimentally tractable learning model known to be mediated by a well-defined cortical region (the insular cortex, Guzmán-Ramos et al, 2012a;Moreno-Castilla et al, 2016;Wu et al, 2020), to detect molecular mediators linking the progressive build-up of Aβ aggregates with cognitive decline. More specifically, we combine genome-wide transcriptional profiling of the cortex of 3xTg-AD mice and control littermates before, during and after the onset of behavioral symptoms (2-14 months of age) with behavioral and biochemical profiling in the exact same mice, to identify wider transcriptional determinants of functional decline specifically associated to the progressive build-up of Aβ deposition.…”

Sleep deprivation triggers somatostatin neurons in prefrontal cortex to initiate nesting and sleep via the preoptic and lateral hypothalamus

“…In general, behavioral responses to drives such as hunger and thirst are integrated in the hypothalamus, which then influences the neocortex and other brain regions to reinforce the required homeostatic response at a behavioral level 28,29 . Nevertheless, there are examples from the other direction: the PFC can impose behavior via projections to the lateral hypothalamus to limit food intake 30 .…”

Parvalbumin interneuron inhibition onto anterior insula neurons projecting to the basolateral amygdala orchestrates aversive taste memory retrieval

“…Neuronal activity within distinct excitatory circuits arising from the aIC differentially contributes to taste memory acquisition and retrieval 11, 19, 20 . We thus hypothesized that activation of excitatory aIC neurons contributes to both CTA memory acquisition and retrieval and assessed this using a chemogenetic viral approach.…”

“…Figures 3 & 6). The processing of innately aversive stimuli such as LiCl and quinine, has been shown to be primarily focalized in more caudal portions of the IC 20, 51 . In accord, innately aversive stimuli did not induce significant RAM responses at the aIC (Figures 5 & 7).…”