Fig. 6.

Two distinct hypothalamic pathways contribute to the modulation of sweet and bitter preferences. a Injection of AAV-DIO-hM4Di-mCherry into the LHA of Vglut2-ires-Cre mice. b Representative image of the projection regions (LS, AD, and LHb) of Vglut2^LHA neurons. c–k Brief access taste tests after local inhibition of Vglut2^LHA neurons projecting to the LS (c), LHb (f), or AD (i) by microinfusion of CNO, respectively. Preferences toward sweet taste (d, g, j) or bitter taste (e, h, k) were evaluated 10 min after microinjection of CNO (0.1 mg/ml, 200 nl). n = 6, F = 34.32, and P = 8.9 × 10^–8 in d, n = 6, F = 4.768, and P = 0.0326 in e, n = 6, F = 7.727, and P = 0.0071 in g, n = 6, F = 13.44, and P = 0.0005 in h, n = 5, F = 3.564, and P = 0.063 in j, and n = 5, F = 2.823, and P = 0.098 in k, two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test. All experiments were carried out with 10- to 16-week-old male mice. Data are given as means ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001