Beyond hedonic eating

Abstract

The capacity to store energy as fat enables animals to ensure energy reserves for the future. In this context, eating beyond satiety (fullness) is a beneficial, adaptive behavior. However, in many human populations, this adaptive behavior is made maladaptive by readily available, energy-dense sources of food, resulting in high rates of obesity. One such behavior, called invigoration, causes an increase in speed, duration, and intake of a palatable food (1). The neural mechanisms underlying this behavior are not yet clear. On page 1376 of this issue, Zhu et al. (2) report a brain circuit that drives feeding invigoration in mice. This circuit begins with neurons in the area around the locus coeruleus (periLC) and results in dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. The finding provides a neural target, the therapeutic modulation of which might enable changes to food intake by preventing invigoration.