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

Wu et. al (2020) studied the anterior insular cortex (aIC) which integrates interoceptive states and emotional awareness and consequently guides behavioral responses. This experiment on mice demonstrated that the right side aIC CamKII+ (aICCamKII) neurons, when hyperactivated, attenuated food consumption, whereas in the case that they are inhibited feeding increases and the anorexia and weight loss induced initially by neural activation was reversed. Similar manipulation at the left-side aIC did not cause significant behavioral changes. The reason appears to be that aICCamKII neurons project directly to the vGluT2+ neurons in the lateral hypothalamus (LH) while the right-side aICCamKII-to-LH pathway mediates feeding suppression. This study revealed the existence of a circuit from the cortex to the hypothalamus that senses aversive (causing strong dislike) visceral signals and controls feeding behavior. [NPID: interoception, interoceptive awareness, emotional awareness, eating disorders, hypothalamus, visceral signals]

Year: 2020

Reference: Wu, Y., Chen, C., Chen, M., Qian, K., Lv, X., Wang, H., Jiang, L., Yu, L., Zhuo, M., & Qiu, S. (2020). The anterior insular cortex unilaterally controls feeding in response to aversive visceral stimuli in mice. Nature communications, 11(1), 640. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14281-5