查看文章

In terms of individual survival, feeding arguably is the most important behavior in which animals engage, because all physiological functions, including other behaviors, depend on the energy and nutrients obtained only through food intake. Appreciation of mechanisms by which gastrointestinal (GI) stimuli are transduced to control food intake took a major leap forward in the 1970s, when Smith and coworkers identified the gut peptide, cholecystokinin cholecystokinin (CCK), as a putative inhibitory control of food intake that is released from the intestine in response to luminal nutrients. In addition, a number of investigators demonstrated that CCK potentiated responses to other GI stimuli, such as gastric distension, to enhance vagal activation and reduce food intake. Electrophysiological recordings indicate that most neurons in the NTS receive direct synaptic input from primary vagal afferent endings. The potential role …