Neural Control of Energy Expenditure

The continuous rise in obesity is a major concern for future healthcare management. Many strategies to control body weight focus on a permanent modification of food intake with limited success in the long term. Metabolism or energy expenditure is the other side of the coin for the regulation of body weight, and strategies to enhance energy expenditure are a current focus for obesity treatment, especially since the (re)-discovery of the energy depleting brown adipose tissue in adult humans. Conversely, several human illnesses like neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, or autoimmune deficiency syndrome suffer from increased energy expenditure and severe weight loss. Thus, strategies to modulate energy expenditure to target weight gain or loss would improve life expectancies and quality of life in many human patients. The aim of this book chapter is to give an overview of our current understanding and recent progress in energy expenditure control with specific emphasis on central control mechanisms.