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Animal cyborg: Behavioral control by 'toy' craving circuit

Date:
April 23, 2018
Source:
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Summary:
Children love to get toys from parents for their birthday present. This craving toward items also involves object hoarding disorders and shopping addiction. However, the biological meaning of why the brain pursues objects or items has remained unknown.
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Children love to get toys from parents for their birthday present. This craving toward items also involves object hoarding disorders and shopping addiction. However, the biological meaning of why the brain pursues objects or items has remained unknown. Part of the answer may lie with a neural circuit in the hypothalamus associated with "object craving," says neuroscientist Daesoo Kim from the Department of Biological Sciences at KAIST.

His research team found that some neurons in the hypothalamus are activated during playing with toys in mice. Thanks to optogenetics, they proved that these neurons in the hypothalamus actually governs obsessive behavior toward non-food objects in mice.

"When we stimulate a neuron in the hypothalamus of mice, they anxiously chased target objects. We found evidence that the neural circuits in the medial preoptic area (MPA) modulate "object craving," the appetite for possessing objects" said Professor Kim.

Researchers also proved that the MPA circuit facilitate hunting behavior in response to crickets, a natural prey to mice, showing the role of this circuit for catching prey. Further, the MPA nerves send excitatory signals to the periaqueductal gray (PAG), located around the cerebral aqueduct, to create such behavior. The team named this circuit the 'MPA-PAG' circuit.

The team showed that they could control mammalian behavior for the first time with this scheme of MPA-Induced Drive Assisted Steering (MIDAS), in which a mouse chase the target objects in the front of head during stimulation of the MPA-PAG circuit. MIDAS allows mice to overcome obstacles to move in a desired path using optogenetics.

Children love to get toys from parents for their birthday present. This craving toward items also involves object hoarding disorders and shopping addiction. However, the biological meaning of why the brain pursues objects or items has remained unknown. Part of the answer may lie with a neural circuit in the hypothalamus associated with "object craving," says neuroscientist Daesoo Kim from the Department of Biological Sciences at KAIST.

His research team found that some neurons in the hypothalamus are activated during playing with toys in mice. Thanks to optogenetics, they proved that these neurons in the hypothalamus actually governs obsessive behavior toward non-food objects in mice.

"When we stimulate a neuron in the hypothalamus of mice, they anxiously chased target objects. We found evidence that the neural circuits in the medial preoptic area (MPA) modulate "object craving," the appetite for possessing objects" said Professor Kim.

Researchers also proved that the MPA circuit facilitate hunting behavior in response to crickets, a natural prey to mice, showing the role of this circuit for catching prey. Further, the MPA nerves send excitatory signals to the periaqueductal gray (PAG), located around the cerebral aqueduct, to create such behavior. The team named this circuit the 'MPA-PAG' circuit.

The team showed that they could control mammalian behavior for the first time with this scheme of MPA-Induced Drive Assisted Steering (MIDAS), in which a mouse chase the target objects in the front of head during stimulation of the MPA-PAG circuit. MIDAS allows mice to overcome obstacles to move in a desired path using optogenetics.

Professor Kim, who teamed up with Professor Phill Seung Lee in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, explained the significance of the research, "This study provides evidence to treat brain disorders such as compulsive hoarding and kleptomania. It also contributes to the development of technology to control the behavior of animals and humans using strong innate motivation, and thus could impact neuro-economics, defense, and disaster relief."

He said the team would like to complete the neural circuit map governing behaviors of possession and hunting in the near future by exploring correlations with other neural behaviors controlling possessing and hunting activities.

This research was funded by the Samsung Science and Technology Foundation and published in Nature Neuroscience in March 2018.


Story Source:

Materials provided by The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Sae-Geun Park, Yong-Cheol Jeong, Dae-Gun Kim, Min-Hyung Lee, Anna Shin, Geunhong Park, Jia Ryoo, Jiso Hong, Seohui Bae, Cheol-Hu Kim, Phill-Seung Lee, Daesoo Kim. Publisher Correction: Medial preoptic circuit induces hunting-like actions to target objects and prey. Nature Neuroscience, 2018; DOI: 10.1038/s41593-018-0115-3

Cite This Page:

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). "Animal cyborg: Behavioral control by 'toy' craving circuit." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 April 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180423110729.htm>.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). (2018, April 23). Animal cyborg: Behavioral control by 'toy' craving circuit. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180423110729.htm
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). "Animal cyborg: Behavioral control by 'toy' craving circuit." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180423110729.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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