The Neuroanatomical Organization of Hypothalamic Feeding Circuits

Abstract Based on early experimental lesion findings, the hypothalamus was historically identified as fundamental for balancing energy intake versus expenditure. Research over the last decades has identified considerable detail of the functional specialization of the hypothalamic neurocircuitry, and how it integrates multiple energy status signals and issues output commands for controlling endocrine and behavioral responses that collectively govern energy balance. This knowledge must now be harnessed to develop therapeutics to counter disorders of energy homeostasis; i.e., the current obesity pandemic demands acquiring further understanding of the functional and neuroanatomical organization of feeding circuits with the help of new advances in the modern systems neuroscience methodologies. This chapter reviews the current understanding of the anatomical and functional organization of hypothalamic feeding circuits while covering some more recent conceptual and technological milestones in the research of energy homeostasis.