Neural Circuit Mechanisms Underlying Emotional Regulation of Homeostatic Feeding

The neural circuits controlling feeding and emotional behaviors are intricately and reciprocally connected. Recent technological developments, including cell type-specific optogenetic and chemogenetic approaches, allow functional characterization of genetically defined cell populations and neural circuits in feeding and emotional processes. Here we review recent studies that have utilized circuit-based manipulations to decipher the functional interactions between neural circuits controlling feeding and those controlling emotional processes. Specifically, we highlight newly described neural circuit interactions between classical emotion-related brain regions, such as the hippocampus and amygdala, and homeostatic feeding circuitry in the arcuate nucleus and lateral hypothalamus (LH). Together these circuits will provide a template for future studies to examine functional interactions between feeding and emotion.