Hypothalamus News and Research

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The Hypothalamus is the area of the brain that controls body temperature, hunger, and thirst.

Diet rich in saturated fat reduces person's cognitive function making it difficult to control eating habits

A diet high in saturated fat can make your brain struggle to control what you eat, says a new study in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience.

29 Jul 2016

Japanese researchers suggest link between stimulus response and consciousness

Japanese researchers centered at Nagoya University reveal a role for orexin neurons of the hypothalamus when mice respond to painful stimuli, and suggest a link between stimulus response and consciousness.

18 Jul 2016

Obese individuals may be more sensitive to overeating when presented with food cues

Obese mice are much more likely than lean mice to overeat in the presence of environmental cues, a behavior that could be related to changes in the brain, finds a new study by a Michigan State University neuroscientist.

12 Jul 2016

Scientists discover network of flows that distribute messenger substances in the brain

We have all bumped our heads at some point, and such incidents are usually harmless. This is thanks to fluid-filled chambers in our brain that offset minor knocks and jolts and provide padding for sensitive components of our nervous system.

11 Jul 2016

AMPK protein activated during fasting regulates hunger neurons in the brain

Neurons in the brain that control hunger are regulated by AMPK, a protein activated during fasting, report researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Neuron on July 6, 2016.

6 Jul 2016

Why does appetite loss occur during illness? An interview with Prof. Conti and Prof. Francesconi

Appetite, as a word, come from the Latin appetitus, meaning "desire for.” Therefore, appetite can be defined as a pleasurable sensation or the desire to eat. This sensation is coordinated by several brain areas associated with reward processing such amygdala, hippocampus, ventral pallidum, nucleus accumbens and striatum, and others.

28 Jun 2016

Study sheds new light on how overeating may lead to more eating

Research is finally beginning to shed light on some of the reasons that extra weight is difficult to shed permanently. Now, a new study has uncovered another method by which the gut senses how much food a person eats and relays that to the brain.

16 Jun 2016

CHLA study provides novel insights into the brain mechanisms linked to Prader-Willi syndrome

A study published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics by researchers at Children's Hospital Los Angeles provides novel insights into the brain mechanisms underlying the insatiable hunger and subsequent obesity in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome.

15 Jun 2016

Study reveals males and females exhibit different stress responses

How does stress - which, among other things, causes our bodies to divert resources from non-essential functions - affect the basic exchange of materials that underlies our everyday life? Weizmann Institute of Science researchers investigated this question by looking at a receptor in the brains of mice, and they came up with a surprising answer.

27 May 2016

McGill researchers discover brain cells that play key role in leptin sensing, weight gain

It's rare for scientists to get what they describe as "clean" results without spending a lot of time repeating the same experiment over and over again. But when researchers saw the mice they were working with doubling their weight within a month or two, they knew they were on to something.

13 May 2016

Scientists discover how immune system molecule hijacks brain circuit to reduce appetite during illness

Loss of appetite during illness is a common and potentially debilitating phenomenon--in cancer patients, especially, it can even shorten lifespan.

5 May 2016

Scientists find that disruption to SCN rhythms can negatively impact overall health

Researchers have shown for the first time how neurons in the SCN are connected to each other, shedding light on this vital area of the brain. Understanding this structure — and how it responds to disruption — is important for tackling illnesses like diabetes and posttraumatic stress disorder. The scientists have also found that disruption to these rhythms such as shifts in work schedules or blue light exposure at night can negatively impact overall health.

4 May 2016

Total cessation of GnRH production by hypothalamic neurons can lead to infertility

Individual small RNAs are responsible for controlling the expression of gonadoliberin or GnRH (Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone), a neurohormone that controls sexual maturation, the appearance of puberty, and fertility in adults.

3 May 2016

Scientists discover genetic switches linked to increased lifespan in mammals

Newly discovered genetic switches that increase lifespan and boost fitness in worms are also linked to increased lifespan in mammals, offering hope that drugs to flip these switches could improve human metabolic function and increase longevity.

3 May 2016

Fructose common in western diet can damage brain genes

A range of diseases -- from diabetes to cardiovascular disease, and from Alzheimer's disease to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder -- are linked to changes to genes in the brain. A new study by UCLA life scientists has found that hundreds of those genes can be damaged by fructose, a sugar that's common in the Western diet, in a way that could lead to those diseases.

25 Apr 2016

Scientists identify key pathway that regulates 'switch' between wakefulness and sleep

Falling asleep and waking up are key transitions in everyone's day. Millions of people have trouble with these transitions - they find it hard to fall asleep or stay asleep at night, and hard to stay awake during the day. Despite decades of research, how these transitions work - the neurobiological mechanics of our circadian rhythm - has remained largely a mystery to brain scientists.

16 Apr 2016

Liraglutide drug makes highly desirable foods less appealing to people

Understanding the motivations that drive humans to eat is an important consideration in the development of weight loss therapies. Now a study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center helps explain how the diabetes and weight loss drug liraglutide acts on brain receptors to make enticing foods seems less desirable.

5 Apr 2016

Neurons in hypothalamus help maintain blood glucose levels, study finds

To learn what different cells do, scientists switch them on and off and observe what the effects are. There are many methods that do this, but they all have problems: too invasive, or too slow, or not precise enough. Now, a new method to control the activity of neurons in mice, devised by scientists at Rockefeller University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, avoids these downfalls by using magnetic forces to remotely control the flow of ions into specifically targeted cells.

24 Mar 2016

New type of nerve cells appears to control feeding behaviors in mice

While researching the brain's learning and memory system, scientists at Johns Hopkins say they stumbled upon a new type of nerve cell that seems to control feeding behaviors in mice. The finding, they report, adds significant detail to the way brains tell animals when to stop eating and, if confirmed in humans, could lead to new tools for fighting obesity. Details of the study will be published by the journal Science on March 18.

20 Mar 2016

Researchers explore problem of obesity from the inside out

In the last 40 years, obesity has more than doubled around the world. In the United States, the average American is more than 24 pounds heavier today than in 1960. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the University of Washington are studying the problem of obesity from the inside out.

16 Mar 2016