Topic: feeding behaviour

Study collective intelligence and predator-prey interactions in the ocean, focusing on blue whales and krill or sperm whales and deep-sea prey. The Collective Ecology group’s Carl Zeiss Nexus project combines biologging, three-dimensional movement records, feeding behaviour and acoustic observations to understand how predators exploit dynamic prey fields. The fully funded four-year doctorate has a planned start in summer or autumn 2027 through IMPRS Quantitative Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution.

The arcuate nucleus (ARC) is a significant brain region involved in energy homeostasis, specifically feeding behaviour. It is widely reported that nicotine consumption reduces feeding behaviour and body weight in both humans and rodents. Milleu et al. (2011) demonstrated that nicotine increases the activity of the Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) positive cells in this nucleus. Huang et al. (2011) reported that nicotine increases the activity of POMC cells and NPY-positive cells. This finding may seem contradictory as NPY neurons promote hunger signals while POMC neurons generate signals of satiety

Plant-derived flavonoids have been demonstrated to enhance cognitive function in various organisms, including invertebrates. In the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis, epicatechin facilitates memory formation through conditioned taste aversion (CTA) training. These snails were categorized into two groups: "good learner" and "poor learner", based on their feeding behaviour 24hours after CTA training. The "good learner" snails showed at least a 40% reduction in feeding behaviour compared to the pre-test levels, while the others were categorized as "poor learner". This study first investigated the effe

Stress is an adaptive mechanism that enables an optimal response to danger. However, chronic stress disrupts normal bodily functions and can lead to various disorders. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in the regulation of stress responses. One of the output targets of the mPFC is the lateral hypothalamus (LH), a brain region that regulates innate behaviours known to be affected by stress. In this work, we analysed effects of optogenetic stimulation of mPFC inputs to LH on innate behaviours in freely behaving mice exposed to different stressors.Optogenetic stimulation of mPFC pro