An animal’s evolutionary success depends on the ability to seek and consume foods while avoiding environmental threats. However, how evolutionarily conserved threat detection circuits modulate feeding is unknown. In mammals, feeding and threat assessment are strongly influenced by the parabrachial nucleus (PBN), a structure that responds to threats and inhibits feeding. Here, we report that the PBN receives dense inputs from two discrete neuronal populations in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), an extended amygdala structure that encodes affective information. Using a series of complementary approaches, we identify opposing BNST-PBN circuits that modulate neuropeptide-expressing PBN neurons to control feeding and affective states. These previously unrecognized neural circuits thus serve as potential nodes of neural circuitry critical for the integration of threat information with the intrinsic drive to feed.

动物进化的成功取决于寻找和消耗食物同时避免环境威胁的能力。然而，进化上保守的威胁检测电路如何调节进食尚不清楚。在哺乳动物中，进食和威胁评估受到臂旁核（PBN）的强烈影响，PBN是一种对威胁做出反应并抑制进食的结构。在这里，我们报告说，PBN 接收来自终纹床核 (BNST) 中两个离散神经元群的密集输入，BNST 是编码情感信息的扩展杏仁核结构。使用一系列互补的方法，我们确定了相反的 BNST-PBN 回路，可以调节表达神经肽的 PBN 神经元来控制进食和情感状态。因此，这些以前未被识别的神经回路充当神经回路的潜在节点，对于威胁信息与内在驱动力的整合至关重要。