BACKGROUND Ghrelin plays important roles in glucose metabolism, appetite, and body weight regulation, and recent evidence suggests ghrelin prevents excessive anxiety under conditions of chronic stress. METHODS We used ghrelin knockout (ghr-/-) mice to examine the role of endogenous ghrelin in anxious behavior and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) responses to acute stress. RESULTS G...

Converging lines of evidence point to the involvement of neurons of the centrally projecting Edinger-Westphal nucleus (EWcp) containing the neuropeptide Urocortin-1 (Ucn1) in excessive ethanol (EtOH) intake and EtOH sensitivity. Here, we expanded these previous findings by using a continuous-access, two-bottle choice drinking paradigm (3%, 6%, and 10% EtOH vs. tap water) to compare EtOH intake ...

The Edinger-Westphal nucleus (EW) produces several neuropeptides, including urocortin 1 and cocaine-amphetamine-regulated transcript, which regulate feeding, energy balance, and anxiety. Additionally, the EW projects to feeding and anxiety-regulatory brain areas. The authors tested the effect of lesions of the EW on the consumption of food, water and flavored solutions, metabolic indices, and e...

Two morphologically distinct types of preganglionic endings are observed in the avian ciliary ganglion: boutonal and cap-like. Boutonal endings synapse on ciliary ganglion neurons (called choroidal neurons) innervating choroidal blood vessels, while cap-like endings synapse on ciliary ganglion neurons (called ciliary neurons) controlling the lens and pupil. Some of both types of preganglionic e...

The activation of processing resources has widespread effects in the nervous system. A model of pupillary control systems (Steinhauer S.R. , Hakerem G., 1992. The pupillary response in cognitive psychophysiology and schizophrenia. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 658, 182-204) had predicted that ongoing cognitive activation should result in inhibition of the light reaction at the level of the oculomotor nu...