Topic: c-Fos activation

High-fat diet (HFD) and obesity are associated with cognitive dysfunction, depression, and increased anxiety, impacting emotional and social behavior. Additionally, HFD affects the immune system, leading to low-level chronic inflammation involving microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells. Inhibiting microglia alters social behavior, and improves HFD-induced metabolic effects. Hence, this raises the question of whether microglial cells mediate HFD-dependent changes in behavioral outcomes.To investigate the effect of HFD-driven microglial activation on neuronal function, HFD adult CX3CR1GFP/

Social memory plays a crucial role in the behavioural dynamics of gregarious animals, facilitating interaction, recognition, and appropriate social responses among conspecifics. Specifically, male mice demarcate their territory using urine marks, rich in pheromonal cues, allowing females to discern territorial ownership—a critical factor in mate selection. This recognition process forms distinct engrams, or biological memory traces, for individual conspecifics. Pheromonal signals are primarily processed by the vomeronasal organ (VNO), transmitted through the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB), and