Poster Gallery

Society for the Study of Ingestive Behaviour, Seattle, August 2014. 

Catherine Hume, Barbara Jachs, Gareth Leng & John Menzies

Snacking is commonly regarded as a cause of weight gain in humans. However, this concept remains controversial due to opposing evidence on
the relationship between snacking and long-­‐term weight gain. The aim of this study was to develop a rat model of snacking to investigate
compensatory behaviour in both males and females in response to a palatable, rewarding food snack.

We hypothesise that the homeostatic systems controlling energy balance may protect the body from weight gain by reducing caloric intake from other sources.

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International Congress of Neuroendocrinology, August 2014 

D.J.Macgregor

The ventromedial nucleus (VMN) of the hypothalamus is one of the main regulators of feeding and sexual behaviour. The neurons respond to several different signals including ghrelin, leptin, cholecystokinin (CCK), and glucose. The VMN contains a heterogeneous neuronal population, of differing biochemical and electrophysiological identities.
Investigation by recording the in vivo firing activity, and examining spike patterning using inter-spike interval (ISI) histograms and hazard functions has identified approximately eight different subtypes. The most intriguing of these show a distinct 3Hz oscillation, detected as a series of ~300ms spaced modes in the ISI histogram. The current project develops a simple network model to show how such a pattern might be generated. We then use the model to test the signal processing properties of these neurons that might relate spike patterning to physiological function.

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