NeuronFeb 20, 2026

Special brain cells in the emotion system help control daily feeding patterns in mice

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Jun 27, 2026

Abstract

Essence

Ventral hippocampal NPY interneurons appear to time feeding through different transmitter signals across the light-dark cycle in mice.

Evidence

This mouse neural-circuit study measured diurnal vHPC NPY-IN activity, chronic circadian disruption effects, transmitter-specific feeding control, and MPOA-to-vSub pathway signaling.

Caveat

Because the work is in mice with circuit-level manipulations, it defines a mouse mechanism rather than human metabolic-disease causality.

Simplified

Feeding behavior is tightly regulated by circadian rhythms, and disruption of this coordination promotes mistimed eating and metabolic dysfunction. Here, using mouse models, we identify a noncanonical role of neuropeptide Y-expressing interneurons (NPY-INs) in the ventral hippocampus (vHPC) in circadian feeding control. vHPC NPY-INs exhibit robust diurnal activity fluctuations that are lost under chronic circadian disruption. Functionally, these neurons regulate feeding across the day-night cycle by engaging distinct transmitters: NPY signaling predominates during the light phase, whereas gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) signaling dominates during the dark phase. Furthermore, vHPC NPY-INs receive monosynaptic glutamatergic and GABAergic inputs from the medial preoptic area (MPOA), which confer circadian plasticity, and project to the ventral subiculum (vSub), where NPYR and NPYR signaling mediates feeding behavior. Together, these findings identify the vHPC NPY-INs as a critical hub linking circadian regulation and energy balance, offering new insight into neural mechanisms underlying mistimed feeding and metabolic disorders. 1 2