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Comprehensive Physiology Feb 2021The sensation that develops as a long breath hold continues is what this article is about. We term this sensation of an urge to breathe "air hunger." Air hunger, a...
The sensation that develops as a long breath hold continues is what this article is about. We term this sensation of an urge to breathe "air hunger." Air hunger, a primal sensation, alerts us to a failure to meet an urgent homeostatic need maintaining gas exchange. Anxiety, frustration, and fear evoked by air hunger motivate behavioral actions to address the failure. The unpleasantness and emotional consequences of air hunger make it the most debilitating component of clinical dyspnea, a symptom associated with respiratory, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases. In most clinical populations studied, air hunger is the predominant form of dyspnea (colloquially, shortness of breath). Most experimental subjects can reliably quantify air hunger using rating scales, that is, there is a consistent relationship between stimulus and rating. Stimuli that increase air hunger include hypercapnia, hypoxia, exercise, and acidosis; tidal expansion of the lungs reduces air hunger. Thus, the defining experimental paradigm to evoke air hunger is to elevate the drive to breathe while mechanically restricting ventilation. Functional brain imaging studies have shown that air hunger activates the insular cortex (an integration center for perceptions related to homeostasis, including pain, food hunger, and thirst), as well as limbic structures involved with anxiety and fear. Although much has been learned about air hunger in the past few decades, much remains to be discovered, such as an accepted method to quantify air hunger in nonhuman animals, fundamental questions about neural mechanisms, and adequate and safe methods to mitigate air hunger in clinical situations. © 2021 American Physiological Society. Compr Physiol 11:1449-1483, 2021.
Topics: Dyspnea; Humans; Hunger; Hypercapnia; Respiration; Sensation
PubMed: 33577128
DOI: 10.1002/cphy.c200001 -
Appetite Jan 2022The term 'hangry' is colloquially used to describe being "bad tempered or irritable as a result of hunger," but remarkably few studies have examined the effect of hunger... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
The term 'hangry' is colloquially used to describe being "bad tempered or irritable as a result of hunger," but remarkably few studies have examined the effect of hunger on emotions. Yet, women attempting to restrict their food intake may be at risk of becoming entangled in a vicious cycle of hunger and negative emotions. That is, hunger may lead to negative emotions, which can lead to overeating and overeating can, in turn, provoke subsequent restriction leading to more hunger. Therefore the aim of this study was to examine the effect of hunger on positive and negative emotions in women with a healthy BMI, and the role of subclinical eating disorder symptoms in this effect. We randomly assigned women to a hunger condition (fasting for 14 h, n = 53) or satiated condition (eat breakfast before the study, n = 55), and they completed the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire and the Profile of Mood States in the lab. Hungry women reported overall higher negative emotions (higher tension, anger, fatigue, and confusion) and lower positive emotions (lower vigour and marginally lower esteem-related affect) than satiated women. Moreover, for satiated but not for hungry women, higher eating disorder symptoms were associated with lower esteem-related affect. These findings show that food restriction leads to negative emotions, and practitioners and individuals should be aware of these implications of food restriction on mental health. Second, clinicians and individuals should be wary of relatively low esteem-related affect when satiated in individuals with eating disorder symptoms, as it could serve as a maintaining factor in eating pathology.
Topics: Eating; Emotions; Feeding Behavior; Feeding and Eating Disorders; Female; Humans; Hunger; Hyperphagia
PubMed: 34637770
DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105746 -
BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) Oct 1997
Topics: Food Deprivation; Human Rights; Humans; Hunger
PubMed: 9353494
DOI: 10.1136/bmj.315.7112.829 -
Neuron Mar 2020The neural mechanisms underlying interoception-the sensation of internal physiological states-remain largely unresolved. In this issue of Neuron, Livneh et al. (2020)...
The neural mechanisms underlying interoception-the sensation of internal physiological states-remain largely unresolved. In this issue of Neuron, Livneh et al. (2020) demonstrate that the insula bridges different timescales of interoception by tracking and predicting thirst and hunger states.
Topics: Cerebral Cortex; Hunger; Interoception; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Sensation
PubMed: 32191858
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.02.032 -
Pflugers Archiv : European Journal of... Mar 2015Sodium is a necessary dietary macromineral that tended to be sparsely distributed in mankind's environment in the past. Evolutionary selection pressure shaped... (Review)
Review
Sodium is a necessary dietary macromineral that tended to be sparsely distributed in mankind's environment in the past. Evolutionary selection pressure shaped physiological mechanisms including hormonal systems and neural circuits that serve to promote sodium ingestion. Sodium deficiency triggers the activation of these hormonal systems and neural circuits to engage motivational processes that elicit a craving for salty substances and a state of reward when salty foods are consumed. Sodium deficiency also appears to be associated with aversive psychological states including anhedonia, impaired cognition, and fatigue. Under certain circumstances the psychological processes that promote salt intake can become powerful enough to cause "salt gluttony," or salt intake far in excess of physiological need. The present review discusses three aspects of the biopsychology of salt hunger and sodium deficiency: (1) the psychological processes that promote salt intake during sodium deficiency, (2) the effects of sodium deficiency on mood and cognition, and (3) the sensitization of sodium appetite as a possible cause of salt gluttony.
Topics: Animals; Appetite; Humans; Hunger; Hyponatremia; Sodium Chloride, Dietary; Taste; Taste Perception; Water-Electrolyte Balance
PubMed: 25572931
DOI: 10.1007/s00424-014-1676-y -
Nature Jul 2021Agouti-related peptide (AGRP)-expressing neurons are activated by fasting-this causes hunger, an aversive state that motivates the seeking and consumption of food....
Agouti-related peptide (AGRP)-expressing neurons are activated by fasting-this causes hunger, an aversive state that motivates the seeking and consumption of food. Eating returns AGRP neuron activity towards baseline on three distinct timescales: rapidly and transiently following sensory detection of food cues, slowly and longer-lasting in response to nutrients in the gut, and even more slowly and permanently with restoration of energy balance. The rapid regulation by food cues is of particular interest as its neurobiological basis and purpose are unknown. Given that AGRP neuron activity is aversive, the sensory cue-linked reductions in activity could function to guide behaviour. To evaluate this, we first identified the circuit mediating sensory cue inhibition and then selectively perturbed it to determine function. Here, we show that a lateral hypothalamic glutamatergic → dorsomedial hypothalamic GABAergic (γ-aminobutyric acid-producing) → AGRP neuron circuit mediates this regulation. Interference with this circuit impairs food cue inhibition of AGRP neurons and, notably, greatly impairs learning of a sensory cue-initiated food-acquisition task. This is specific for food, as learning of an identical water-acquisition task is unaffected. We propose that decreases in aversive AGRP neuron activity mediated by this food-specific circuit increases the incentive salience of food cues, and thus facilitates the learning of food-acquisition tasks.
Topics: Agouti-Related Protein; Animals; Cues; Food; Hunger; Hypothalamic Area, Lateral; Learning; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Neural Pathways; Neurons; Optogenetics
PubMed: 34262177
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03729-3 -
Aging Cell Apr 2024
Topics: Hunger; Biomarkers
PubMed: 38532727
DOI: 10.1111/acel.14158 -
Physiology (Bethesda, Md.) Mar 2023Physiological needs create powerful motivations (e.g., thirst and hunger). Studies in humans and animal models have implicated the insular cortex in the neural... (Review)
Review
Physiological needs create powerful motivations (e.g., thirst and hunger). Studies in humans and animal models have implicated the insular cortex in the neural regulation of physiological needs and need-driven behavior. We review prominent mechanistic models of how the insular cortex might achieve this regulation and present a conceptual and analytical framework for testing these models in healthy and pathological conditions.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Insular Cortex; Cerebral Cortex; Hunger; Sensation; Thirst
PubMed: 36040864
DOI: 10.1152/physiol.00019.2022 -
Current Biology : CB Sep 2021While energy balance is critical to survival, many factors influence food intake beyond caloric need or "hunger." Despite this, some neurons that drive feeding in mice...
While energy balance is critical to survival, many factors influence food intake beyond caloric need or "hunger." Despite this, some neurons that drive feeding in mice are routinely referred to as "hunger neurons," whereas others are not. To understand how specific hypothalamic circuits control interoceptive hunger, we trained mice to discriminate fasted from sated periods. We then manipulated three hypothalamic neuronal populations with well-known effects on feeding while mice performed this task. While activation of ARC neurons in sated mice caused mice to report being food-restricted, LH neuron activation or LH neuron inhibition did not. In contrast, LH neuron inhibition or LH neuron activation in fasted mice attenuated natural hunger, whereas ARC neuron inhibition did not. Each neuronal population evoked distinct effects on food consumption and reward. After satiety- or sickness-induced devaluation, ARC neurons drove calorie-specific feeding, while LH neurons drove calorie-indiscriminate food intake. Our data support a role for ARC neurons in homeostatic feeding and implicate them in driving a hunger-like internal state that directs behavior toward caloric food sources. Moreover, manipulations of LH circuits did not evoke hunger-like effects in sated mice, suggesting that they may govern feeding more related to reward, compulsion, or generalized consumption than to energy balance, but also that these LH circuits can be powerful negative appetite modulators in fasted mice. This study highlights the complexity of hypothalamic feeding regulation and can be used as a framework to characterize how other neuronal circuits affect hunger and identify potential therapeutic targets for eating disorders.
Topics: Agouti-Related Protein; Animals; Appetite; Eating; Hunger; Hypothalamus; Mice; Neurons
PubMed: 34273280
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.06.048 -
Torture : Quarterly Journal on... 2022Deprivation of prisoner food, in terms of its quality and quantity, has generally been accepted as violating the prohibition of torture and related ill-treatment,...
BACKGROUND
Deprivation of prisoner food, in terms of its quality and quantity, has generally been accepted as violating the prohibition of torture and related ill-treatment, particularly when combined with other factors (i.e., harmful conditions and practices). Aspects relevant to assessing when and how food provision is considered inadequate, however, remain complex and confusing. This article presents a doctrinal review which consolidates normative understandings of adequate prisoner food.
METHOD
A systematic full-text search was made of international and regional normative standards, case-law and commentary in relevant databases. These were then selected based on their relevance for regulatory and explanatory specificity and pertinence to detention contexts.
FINDINGS
International and regional bodies directly connect the adequacy of food to respect for dignity, freedom from torture and ill-treatment as well as the right to health - and particularly as depending on duration, quality, quantity and variety. What constitutes inadequate food remains complex as it is contingent on both material and non-material considerations, including its quality (content, nutritiousness, edibility, variety, wholesomeness), its quantity (calorie, substantiveness, balance), its preparation (hygiene, respect to the individual and community), its provision and consumption (when, how and where it is to be eaten, regularity, accessibility, warmth/cold), its socio-cultural suitability (to religious and cultural values) and its developmental suitability (for pregnant or breast-feeding mothers and children).
Topics: Child; Pregnancy; Female; Humans; Torture; Prisons; International Law; Hunger; Prisoners
PubMed: 36519194
DOI: 10.7146/torture.v32i3.128479