Top-down regulation of ingestive behavior fragmentation

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Behavioral Biology
• Computational Neuroscience

Background:

• Animals exhibit fragmented feeding patterns, not continuous eating.
• The neural basis for this feeding behavior is not well understood.
• Understanding this fragmentation is key to understanding action selection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify the neural mechanisms regulating feeding bout fragmentation.
• To investigate the role of the dorsal subiculum (dSub) and mammillary body (MB) in feeding behavior.
• To model the neural dynamics underlying feeding fragmentation.

Main Methods:

• Bidirectional neural activity mapping.
• Behavioral phenotyping.
• Optogenetic and behavioral perturbations.
• Bistable attractor modeling.

Main Results:

• A dSub-MB neural projection was identified as a key regulator of feeding bout duration.
• dSub-MB pathway activity tracks and gates feeding bout length, irrespective of homeostatic state.
• A bistable attractor model accurately predicted neural and behavioral responses.

Conclusions:

• The dSub-MB circuit provides a top-down mechanism for controlling feeding fragmentation.
• This circuit implements action selection in naturalistic feeding scenarios.
• Neural dynamics in this pathway are crucial for behavioral timing.