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Foraging and flight trump defense and fight

Nature Neuroscience volume 19, pages 645–646 (2016)Cite this article

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Hypothalamic Agouti-related peptide (AgRP)-expressing neurons promote feeding via inhibitory mechanisms. A downstream target in the medial amygdala both mediates feeding and modulates risk-taking and defensive behaviors in the face of starvation.

Simplistically speaking, organismal survival relies on the intake of energy. Thus, in a state of starvation, foraging often takes an animal to unfamiliar and potentially dangerous territory. How does the brain integrate internal state fluctuations with a constantly changing external world to ultimately output the optimal course of action? Or, when facing an intruder, how does a hungry animal choose whether to defend a territory scarce in caloric resources, expending energy to fend off potential competition? The neural circuits governing defined behaviors such as hunger and aggression are likely to intersect in a highly intricate manner. In this issue Padilla et al.1 identify a hypothalamus-to-limbic circuit mediating the suppression of territorial defense in times of energy depletion.

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Figure 1: AgRP→MeA terminal activation dampens territorial aggression.

Marina Corral Spence/Nature Publishing Group

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chia Li and Michael J. Krashes are in the Diabetes, Endocrinology and Obesity Branch, National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), US National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), US National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.,

    Chia Li & Michael J Krashes

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  1. Chia Li
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  2. Michael J Krashes
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Correspondence to Michael J Krashes.

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Li, C., Krashes, M. Foraging and flight trump defense and fight. Nat Neurosci 19, 645–646 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4294

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