BIO

Isha Shah is a second year cell and molecular neuroscience major who studies behaviors and motivation regarding feeding in mice with this research she hopes to pursue medical school

Oxytocin Signaling in Ventromedial Hypothalamus Regulates Eating Behaviors

Abstract

Our main goal of this experiment is to examine oxytocin receptors (OXTR) in the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) and how they regulate eating behaviors. This region in the brain is largely responsible for regulating emotion, eating behaviors and sexual behaviors (Khodai, Tansi, Luckman 2021). OXTR-expressing neurons play a major role in eating behaviors and emotion and have been shown to be expressed in the VMH (Florea et al.,2022). However knowledge of OXTR-expressing neurons in the VMH and how they regulate eating behaviors is largely unknown. In efforts to provide better understanding of neuron function, seven male OXTR-Cre mice were used in this experiment. Initially, the mice underwent operant conditioning tests to see how the OXTR-expressing neurons in the VMH could affect motivation. However, we found that activation of the OXTR-expressing neurons in the VMH had no impact on motivation. Food intake was tested to see if neuron activation would have an effect on eating behaviors in various energy states. When the mice were tested with ad libitum normal chow, and fasted normal chow no effect was shown. Conversely, neuron activation caused a decrease in intake of highly palatable food. Based on our findings, OXTR neurons in the VMH may regulate the intake of highly palatable food.

Keywords: Neuroscience, psychology, cognitive neuroscience