Identification of a Stress-Sensitive Anorexigenic Neurocircuit From Medial Prefrontal Cortex to Lateral Hypothalamus.

Background: A greater understanding of how the brain controls appetite is fundamental to developing new approaches for treating diseases characterized by dysfunctional feeding behavior, such as obesity and anorexia nervosa.

Methods: By modeling neural network dynamics related to homeostatic state and body mass index, we identified a novel pathway projecting from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) to the lateral hypothalamus (LH) in humans (n = 53). We then assessed the physiological role and dissected the function of this mPFC-LH circuit in mice.