Page 76 - Q. Neuroscience

[Q. Neuroscience-44]

The dopaminergic circuit in control of compulsive eating

behavior

Bokyeong Kim¹, Ja-Hyun Baik¹

¹Department of Life Sciences, Korea University, Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea

Dopamine serves a central role in motivated behavior and reward processing, in which dopamine D2 receptor (D2R)
is intimately involved. Food addiction is characterized by a loss of behavioral control and compulsive food intake
results in obesity. Reduction of striatal D2R availability is observed in obese patients. The similar deficit is also

detected in drug addicts, suggesting D2R is important to compulsive behavior towards the reward. We observed

that D2R knockout (D2R -/-) mice consumed significantly higher palatable food (PF) when limiting the access to PF
as well as in the aversive context in the light/dark box test, displaying compulsive eating behavior. Optogenetic
inhibition of D2R (+) neurons from the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) to the bed nucleus of the stria

terminalis (BNST), which we previously identified as a dopaminergic circuit regulating impulsivity, promotes PF
consumption in light/dark box test. These data suggest that D2R (+) neurons in the CeA→BNST circuit can modulate

compulsive eating behavior in association with reward. Currently, we are investigating monosynaptic inputs into the
CeA to further identify the dopaminergic circuit governing the compulsive eating behavioral control. Supported by

Bio& Medical Tech. Dev. Program(2016M3A9D5A01952412)