Restricted feeding schedules phase shift daily rhythms of c-Fos and protein Per1 immunoreactivity in corticolimbic regions in rats

Food anticipatory activity is associated with increased neuronal activation in several brain regions.

• Increased neuronal activity, indicated by c-Fos immunoreactivity, was observed during food anticipatory activity in the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, lateral septum, prefrontal cortex, and paraventricular thalamic nucleus.
• No increased neuronal activity was found in the hippocampus during the same conditions.
• Daily rhythms of the clock protein PER1 were present in all structures studied under ad libitum feeding, except for both amygdalar nuclei and the prefrontal cortex.
• Restricted feeding schedules shifted the daily peaks of PER1 in several brain regions to a specific time, particularly at zeitgeber time 12 for the nucleus accumbens and other areas.
• The amplitude of PER1 oscillations in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis was enhanced at zeitgeber time 12, while the peak in the paraventricular thalamic nucleus shifted to zeitgeber time 6.

AI simplified