This is a guest post in our #NPGsfn11 blog series and posted on behalf of Scicurious.
One of the interesting things that you get to see when you go to the Society for Neuroscience meeting is what’s up and coming, what’s hot, and what’s kind of fading from the forefront of the hivemind of neuroscience. As Sci walks around, seeing posters, hearing talks, seeing colleagues and friends, I hear words bandied around. Optogenetics is the new hotness. Oxytocin? A little last year.
And then there’s food and reward. It’s a quiet murmur, but it’s getting stronger. Things like “food addiction” and “sucrose reward” start to go around. And my ears perk up, because I personally find this subject FASCINATING. And you should, too. After all, there is a veritable symphony controlling what, and when, and how much you eat.
And to that symphony we can add the soft oboe modulating sound of the serotonin receptors in the nucleus accumbens.
Pratt et al. “Selective serotonin receptor stimulation of the medial nucleus accumbens alters appetitive motivation for sugar reinforcement within a progressive ratio task” Wake Forest University. 103.15.