To eat or to mate—that is the question (and the answer is: moderately hungry mice choose to mate). Researchers publishing in the journal Cell Metabolism on Thursday February 23 show that hungry mice prioritize interacting with members of the opposite sex over eating and drinking when their brains are stimulated with leptin, an appetite-suppressing hormone.
"We can only pursue one behavior at a time, so our brain has to somehow compute what will be the most rewarding behavior, or what is our most urgent need," says senior author Tatiana Korotkova (@CurioNeuro), a neuroscientist at the University Clinic Cologne in Germany.
To elucidate the hierarchy of innate behaviors like eating, drinking, socializing, and mating, Korotkova's team observed and stimulated mouse neurons within the lateral hypothalamus, one of the main "feeding centers" of the brain. They focused on neurons that bear receptors for leptin and neurons that produce neurotensin, two hormones with ties to hunger and thirst. To their surprise, they found that these neurons were also involved in guiding social behavior and helping the mice balance their nutritional and social needs.
"We were astonished to find that the lateral hypothalamus links feeding and drinking to social behaviors," says first author Anne Petzold (@neuroadept
