Food odors don’t just trigger cravings – when they persist, they can suppress appetite
Most of us have experienced mouthwatering and stomach grumbling after perceiving brief whiffs of food while hungry. While we respond to a momentary smell of food with increased appetite, a study published in Nature Communications shows that sustained food odors result in decreased appetite in mice.
The work was led by Dr. Yang He, assistant professor of pediatrics – neurology at Baylor College of Medicine and principal investigator at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas’s Children’s Hospital. He, his postdoctoral associate Dr. Yao Liu and their colleagues identified a specific neural circuit that can suppress appetite in response to prolonged food smells.
“Our study unveils a brain circuit that originates in the olfactory bulb (OB) and involves the ventral subiculum (vSub), neurons that are specifically activated by food odors, and the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH), the brain region known for regulating feeding behavior,” He said. “This novel circuit mediates the suppression of food intake induced by persistent exposure to food-derived odors.”
The He lab demonstrated that inhibiting the OB-vSub-VMH pathway reversed the lack of appetite induced by prolonged exposure to food odors.
Their findings suggest that olfactory cues play a more complex role in feeding behavior and regulation of food intake than was previously understood and open new possibilities for managing obesity and related diseases.
Other authors of this study include Hailan Liu, Huey-Xian Kelly Wong, Niccole Auld, Kristine M. Conde, Yongxiang Li, Meng Yu, Yue Deng, Qingzhuo Liu, Xing Fang, Mengjie Wang, Yuhan Shi, Olivia Z. Ginnard, Yuxue Yang, Longlong Tu, Hesong Liu, Jonathan C. Bean, Junying Han, Megan E. Burt, Sanika V. Jossy, Yongjie Yang, Chunmei Wang, Qingchun Tong, Benjamin R. Arenkiel, Hongjie Li and Yong Xu (co-corresponding author).
This work was supported by grants from the Texas Children’s Research Scholar Fund, the American Heart Association, the USDA/CRIS, the NIH, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, Impetus Grants, the Ted Nash Long Life Foundation and the Welch Foundation.
Find the original article, here.
