# Ventral Hippocampus Circuits Underlying Conditioned Feeding Behavior

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2020 · $23,400

## Abstract

7. PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 Over the past 30 years, the obesity epidemic has grown such that more than 2 in 3 adults are classified
as overweight or obese, and about 1 in 6 children and adolescents are considered to have obesity 1,7. The
alarming increase in the prevalence of obesity is in large part due to the increasing size and number of meals
that people consume 33,34, which are often influenced by learned experiences and environmental food-
associated cues that can drive an individual to eat beyond metabolic/energy need 10,11. Recent publications from
our lab4,5 indicate an important role for ventral hippocampus (CA1v) projections to the lateral hypothalamic
area (LHA) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in mediating conditioned and motivated aspects of feeding
behavior. However, CA1v neural pathways and behavioral mechanisms for the integration of food-related
internal and environmental cues are not fully characterized. The goals of this proposal are to [1] map primary
1st-order projections of CA1v neurons, [2] identify collateral pathways branching from CA1v>mPFC and
CA1v>LHA pathways, and [3] determine 2nd-order projection outputs of CA1v>mPFC and CA1v>LHA
pathways (Aim I). This proposal also aims to test the functional relevance of CA1v>mPFC and CA1v>LHA
pathways to higher-order aspects of feeding by combining viral-mediated disconnection of CA1v pathways with
rodent feeding-relevant behavior paradigms that probe memory processes related to internal and external
feeding-relevant cues (Aim II). Overall proposed experiments assess multiple levels of analyses and utilize
state-of-the-art methodologies, including conditional virogenetic neural pathway tracing and functional
chemogenetic methods to unravel the neural circuits that connect learning and memory with feeding behavior.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9975147
- **Project number:** 5F31DK118944-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Clarissa Liu
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $23,400
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-07-01 → 2021-04-03

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9975147

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9975147, Ventral Hippocampus Circuits Underlying Conditioned Feeding Behavior (5F31DK118944-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9975147. Licensed CC0.

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