Food-associated cues alter forebrain functional connectivity as assessed with immediate early gene and proenkephalin expression

Autor: Quentin Z. Bremer, Craig A. Schiltz, Charles F. Landry, Ann E. Kelley
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2007
Předmět:
Male
Physiology
Plant Science
Striatum
Nucleus accumbens
Biology
General Biochemistry
Genetics and Molecular Biology
Arousal
Rats
Sprague-Dawley
03 medical and health sciences
Prosencephalon
0302 clinical medicine
Structural Biology
medicine
Animals
Learning
RNA
Messenger
Protein Precursors
Genes
Immediate-Early
lcsh:QH301-705.5
Ecology
Evolution
Behavior and Systematics
030304 developmental biology
Regulation of gene expression
0303 health sciences
Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
Biochemistry
Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
Enkephalins
Feeding Behavior
Cell Biology
Anatomy
medicine.disease
Corpus Striatum
Rats
medicine.anatomical_structure
Gene Expression Regulation
lcsh:Biology (General)
Food
Forebrain
Cues
Nerve Net
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Immediate early gene
Neuroscience
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Ingestive behaviors
Research Article
Developmental Biology
Biotechnology
Basolateral amygdala
Zdroj: BMC Biology, Vol 5, Iss 1, p 16 (2007)
BMC Biology
ISSN: 1741-7007
Popis: Background Cues predictive of food availability are powerful modulators of appetite as well as food-seeking and ingestive behaviors. The neurobiological underpinnings of these conditioned responses are not well understood. Monitoring regional immediate early gene expression is a method used to assess alterations in neuronal metabolism resulting from upstream intracellular and extracellular signaling. Furthermore, assessing the expression of multiple immediate early genes offers a window onto the possible sequelae of exposure to food cues, since the function of each gene differs. We used immediate early gene and proenkephalin expression as a means of assessing food cue-elicited regional activation and alterations in functional connectivity within the forebrain. Results Contextual cues associated with palatable food elicited conditioned motor activation and corticosterone release in rats. This motivational state was associated with increased transcription of the activity-regulated genes homer1a, arc, zif268, ngfi-b and c-fos in corticolimbic, thalamic and hypothalamic areas and of proenkephalin within striatal regions. Furthermore, the functional connectivity elicited by food cues, as assessed by an inter-regional multigene-expression correlation method, differed substantially from that elicited by neutral cues. Specifically, food cues increased cortical engagement of the striatum, and within the nucleus accumbens, shifted correlations away from the shell towards the core. Exposure to the food-associated context also induced correlated gene expression between corticostriatal networks and the basolateral amygdala, an area critical for learning and responding to the incentive value of sensory stimuli. This increased corticostriatal-amygdalar functional connectivity was absent in the control group exposed to innocuous cues. Conclusion The results implicate correlated activity between the cortex and the striatum, especially the nucleus accumbens core and the basolateral amygdala, in the generation of a conditioned motivated state that may promote excessive food intake. The upregulation of a number of genes in unique patterns within corticostriatal, thalamic, and hypothalamic networks suggests that food cues are capable of powerfully altering neuronal processing in areas mediating the integration of emotion, cognition, arousal, and the regulation of energy balance. As many of these genes play a role in plasticity, their upregulation within these circuits may also indicate the neuroanatomic and transcriptional correlates of extinction learning.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz: