Elsevier

Appetite

Volume 43, Issue 3, December 2004, Pages 315-317
Appetite

Brief Communication
Neural control of appetite: cross-talk between homeostatic and non-homeostatic systems

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2004.04.009Get rights and content

Abstract

The new lifestyle in the modern world is causing a rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity and associated health problems. Increased availability of palatable and energy dense foods, combined with a lack of physical activity overpower a homeostatic regulatory system that evolved to survive periods of famine rather than preventing obesity. Environmental and lifestyle factors influence energy balance mainly through their impact on cortico-limbic brain structures dealing with reward, cognitive, and social aspects of food intake and voluntary physical activity. To find new behavioral and pharmacological treatments of obesity, it will be important to identify the specific pathways that link these externally driven processes with the homeostatic regulatory system.

Section snippets

Environmental factors impinge on cortico-limbic brain structures to affect food intake

Only a small fraction of human obesity can be explained by single gene defects as in the case of leptin (Farooqi et al., 2002) or melanocortin signaling deficiency. In ‘common obesity’, there is no single gene defect, but it is the interaction of many susceptibility genes with a particular environment. According to the thrifty gene hypothesis, genes that were selected and important for survival in an environment characterized by a relatively scarce food supply and frequent periods of famine

The ‘new’ neurology of reward: the driving force for ingestive behavior in the modern world

It has been speculated that reward mechanisms evolved to guarantee engagement in particular behaviors important for survival of species. A constant and varied energy supply is certainly important for survival, and eating food typically generates pleasurable or rewarding feelings. Until recently, reward was thought of as a single neurological entity with dopamine transmission playing a crucial role. Now a ‘new’ neurology of reward is emerging. The mechanisms contributing to reward can be parsed

Reward can override the metabolic regulatory system

A leptin-sensitive peptidergic neural network in the hypothalamus has been identified as the homeostatic control system for the regulation of adiposity and body weight (Flier, 2004, Schwartz, 2001). This system is remarkably powerful in guaranteeing a sufficient supply of energy, as demonstrated by genetic models with deficiencies in signaling at the leptin receptor or further downstream (Farooqi et al., 2002). Although often portrayed as a simple reflex circuit involving the arcuate nucleus of

Acknowledgements

Based on a presentation to the Columbia University Seminar on Appetitive Behavior, 22 January, 2004 (Harry R. Kissileff, Chairman), supported in part by Glaxosmithkline and The New York Obesity Research Center, St Lukes/Roosevelt Hospital.

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