Role of Lateral Hypothalamic Dopaminergic Mechanisms in Feeding Regulation: A Study Caitlin Therence Tejowinoto
The mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway, also known as the reward pathway, has been associated with motivation of certain behaviours in living organisms. Food intake is one of the key components of survival and studies have shown that food consumption results in dopamine release in the reward pathway, suggesting that dopaminergic mechanisms may be important in feeding regulation. The lateral hypothalamus is also thought to be a key player in feeding regulation because it has been linked to motivation of food consumption, innervated by appetite-affecting neurons from the arcuate nucleus, and the presence of neuropeptides that affects feeding behaviour such as melanocortin concentrating hormone and orexin. Presence of dopamine receptors in the lateral hypothalamus has been reported, hence Yonemochi et al. (2019) investigated the role of dopaminergic mechanisms in the lateral hypothalamus in regard to feeding regulation. It was found that the dopaminergic function in the lateral hypothalamus regulates feeding by a negative feedback mechanism, where the release of dopamine from feeding stimulates dopamine receptors in the lateral hypothalamus, which reduces food intake. This study is important in investigating the homeostasis of food intake and energy balance, which can be applied to energy balance disorders. Keywords: Dopamine, feeding regulation, lateral hypothalamus, neuropeptides, food intake, dopamine receptors
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