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Nature Research, Nature Neuroscience, 8(15), p. 1108-1110, 2012

DOI: 10.1038/nn.3147

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AgRP neurons regulate development of dopamine neuronal plasticity and nonfood-associated behaviors

Journal article published in 2012 by Marcelo O. Dietrich, Jeremy Bober, Jozélia G. Ferreira, Luis A. Tellez, Yann S. Mineur, Diogo O. Souza, Xiao-Bing Gao ORCID, Marina R. Picciotto ORCID, Ivan Araújo, Zhong-Wu Liu, Tamas L. Horvath
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

It is not known whether behaviors unrelated to feeding are affected by hypothalamic regulators of hunger. We found that impairment of Agouti-related protein (AgRP) circuitry by either Sirt1 knockdown in AgRP-expressing neurons or early postnatal ablation of these neurons increased exploratory behavior and enhanced responses to cocaine. In AgRP circuit–impaired mice, ventral tegmental dopamine neurons exhibited enhanced spike timing–dependent long-term potentiation, altered amplitude of miniature postsynaptic currents and elevated dopamine in basal forebrain. Thus, AgRP neurons determine the set point of the reward circuitry and associated behaviors.