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Behavioral dissection of hunger states in Drosophila

Summary

Scientists studying fruit flies discovered that hunger comes in two types: the need-based hunger when your body needs nutrients, and pleasure-based hunger when you want tasty food. By carefully watching how flies eat under different food conditions and examining their brain activity, researchers identified specific brain structures (the mushroom body) and dopamine neurons that control the desire for delicious food. This finding helps us understand why we eat food we don’t need and could lead to better treatments for obesity and eating disorders.

Background

Hunger is a motivational drive that can be generated by physiological need for nutrients (homeostatic hunger) or by the rewarding properties of food (hedonic hunger). While brain circuits regulating feeding have been described, it remains unclear which circuits contribute to generating different motivational states that drive feeding behavior.

Objective

To behaviorally and neurally distinguish hedonic from homeostatic hunger states in Drosophila melanogaster by developing behavioral assays and identifying neural circuits involved in each type of feeding motivation.

Results

Starved flies exhibited increased frequency and duration of feeding events. Long-duration feeding events were identified as a behavioral signature of hedonic feeding. Mushroom body α’/β’ lobes and dopaminergic PAM neurons were specifically required for hedonic but not homeostatic feeding. A positive correlation between homeostatic and hedonic feeding measures suggested that homeostatic state potentiates hedonic hunger.

Conclusion

This study establishes behavioral and neural distinctions between hedonic and homeostatic hunger states in Drosophila, providing a framework for dissecting the molecular mechanisms underlying different feeding motivations and their interactions.
  • Published in:eLife,
  • Study Type:Experimental Research,
  • Source: PMID: 37326496
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