Behavioral significance of monkey hypothalamic glucose-sensitive neurons.

Feeding-related neuronal activity of lateral hypothalamic glucose-sensitive and glucose-insensitive neurons was investigated in behaving monkeys. The behavioral paradigm was a high fixed ratio of bar pressing for food reward signaled by light and tone cues. Twenty-seven percent of the neurons tested were glucose-sensitive. The population of neurons which changed in firing rate during the feeding task was higher among glucose-sensitive cells than among glucose-insensitive cells. The activity of many glucose-sensitive neurons decreased during the bar pressing and reward periods. A small population of glucose-sensitive neurons responded to cue stimuli. The results suggest that glucose-sensitive neurons are mainly involved in the drive and/or reward mechanism of feeding behavior, and that these cells may have specific roles in neural control of hunger-motivated food acquisition.