The rewarding taste of food is critical for motivating animals to eat, but whether taste has a parallel function in promoting meal termination is not well understood. Here, we show that hunger-promoting agouti-related peptide (AgRP) neurons are rapidly inhibited during each bout of ingestion by a signal linked to the taste of food. Blocking these transient dips in activity via closed-loop optogenetic stimulation increases food intake by selectively delaying the onset of satiety. We show that upstream leptin-receptor-expressing neurons in the dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMHLepR) are tuned to respond to sweet or fatty tastes and exhibit time-locked activation during feeding that is the mirror image of downstream AgRP cells. These findings reveal an unexpected role for taste in the negative feedback control of ingestion. They also reveal a mechanism by which AgRP neurons, which are the primary cells that drive hunger, are able to influence the moment-by-moment dynamics of food consumption.

中文翻译：

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食物味道对下丘脑进食回路的负反馈控制


食物的有益味道对于激励动物进食至关重要，但味觉是否在促进进餐终止方面具有平行功能尚不清楚。在这里，我们表明，促进饥饿的刺豚鼠相关肽 （AgRP） 神经元在每次摄入过程中都会被与食物味道相关的信号迅速抑制。通过闭环光遗传学刺激阻断这些短暂的活动下降，通过选择性地延迟饱腹感的开始来增加食物摄入量。我们表明，下丘脑背内侧 （DMHLepR） 中表达瘦素受体的上游神经元被调整为对甜味或脂肪味做出反应，并在进食过程中表现出时间锁定激活，这是下游 AgRP 细胞的镜像。这些发现揭示了味觉在摄入的负反馈控制中意想不到的作用。他们还揭示了一种机制，即 AgRP 神经元（驱动饥饿的主要细胞）能够影响食物消费的每时每刻动态。