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Talk:Parabrachial nuclei

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Hunger-satiety circuit

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The parabrachial nucleus seems to be a crucial part in the hunger-satiety circuit. From https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/01/02/1084713/how-does-hunger-work-appetite/

In 2014, Lowell used the remote-control tool to methodically turn each bundle of neurons leading out of the PVH on and off, to see which ones produced satiety. Once he identified the neurons that affected satiety, he followed them out of the hypothalamus. It led him to an area in the brain stem called the parabrachial nucleus (PBN)—the third key hub involved in the hunger-satiety circuit.
For the past eight years, Lowell and Andermann have been looking for the PBN neurons involved in hunger. It’s a painstaking hunt—the PBN contains hundreds of thousands of neurons. Lowell’s lab is tracing the hunger-satiety circuit forward out of the PBN while Andermann’s lab works backwards toward it from the insular cortex, an area associated with the conscious experience of bodily states like hunger.
The sheer number of neurons in the PBN makes the task daunting. It’s made even more complicated by the fact that the PBN isn’t just involved in sending hunger signals to higher-order brain processing centers but is also the final stop for scores of other impulses and needs. Agentjoerg (talk) 05:41, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]