Citation

Important innate behaviors in mammals, such as sleep-wake regulation, arousal, eating, drinking, and stress, are associated with the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA). The LHA is a complex brain region consisting of broad populations of either excitatory glutamatergic neurons or inhibitory GABAergic neurons. Recent studies have revealed dense and heterogeneous fibers from both LHA populations projecting to neuromodulatory regions in the midbrain and brainstem, including the tuberomammillary nucleus (TMN), ventral tegmental area (VTA), dorsal raphe (DR), and locus coeruleus (LC). Viral tracing and immunohistochemistry were utilized to characterize the anatomy of LHAVGLUT2 and LHAVGAT projections to the aforementioned regions in an effort to understand LHA regulation of innate behavior.