# Neural Mechanisms of Ingestive Behavior

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE · 2024 · $381,379

## Abstract

Interoception includes processes by which an organism senses, integrates, interprets, and
regulates internal signals that contribute to physiological processes such as eating. In this context,
more is known about ascending brain pathways for postoral signals than about descending
pathways (e.g. central regulators) that alter processing of this sensory information. In fact, NIH
has identified our limited understanding of how forebrain central regulators modulate ascending
interoceptive signals and its impact on behavior as critical knowledge gaps. Importantly, eating is
not only regulated by postoral sensory signals but also by oral sensory signals (e.g. taste). Despite
its public health importance, major gaps exist in our understanding of how central regulator nuclei
influence neural coding of ascending sensory information and its impact on ingestive behavior.
This proposal seeks to broaden our knowledge of how an anatomically/molecularly defined central
regulator pathway contributes to taste coding and ingestive behavior. We have identified
amygdala (CeA) cells that express GABA and somatostatin (Sst) as a source of several distinct
central regulator pathways. One such pathway provides input to a region of the pons called the
parabrachial nucleus (PBN - CeA/Sst-to-PBN pathway). The PBN is critical to processing oral and
postoral signals that strongly influence the foodstuff an animal chooses to ingest. Our central
premise is that this central regulator pathway mediates, in part, the neural processing of
interoceptive information and, consequently, influences ingestive behavior. We will use Sst-cre
mice in conjunction with cre-dependent retrograde viruses to specifically label and
optogenetically manipulate CeA/Sst neurons. Our complimentary aims will expand knowledge of
how CeA/Sst-to-PBN neurons influence ingestive behavior driven by oral and postoral signals,
neural processing of taste information in the PBN, and neural activity of other CeA/Sst regulator
neurons that differ in terms of where they project in the brainstem (i.e. NST vs. PBN).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10980736
- **Project number:** 1R01DC021445-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE
- **Principal Investigator:** MARTHA E BICKFORD
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $381,379
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-06-10 → 2029-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10980736

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10980736, Neural Mechanisms of Ingestive Behavior (1R01DC021445-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10980736. Licensed CC0.

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