Fernando M C V Reis, Sandra Maesta-Pereira, Matthias Ollivier, Peter J Schuette, Ekayana Sethi, Blake A Miranda, Emily Iniguez, Meghmik Chakerian, Eric Vaughn, Megha Sehgal, Darren C T Nguyen, Faith T H Yuan, Anita Torossian, Juliane M Ikebara, Alexandre H Kihara, Alcino J Silva, Jonathan C Kao, Baljit S Khakh, Avishek Adhikari
Investigative exploration and foraging leading to food consumption have vital importance, but are not well-understood. Since GABAergic inputs to the lateral and ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (l/vlPAG) control such behaviors, we dissected the role of vgat-expressing GABAergic l/vlPAG cells in exploration, foraging and hunting. Here, we show that in mice vgat l/vlPAG cells encode approach to food and consumption of both live prey and non-prey foods. The activity of these cells is necessary and sufficient for inducing food-seeking leading to subsequent consumption...
March 7, 2024: Nature Communications