The abundance of energy-dense and palatable diets in the modern food environment tightly contributes to the obesity pandemic. The reward circuit participates to the regulation of body homeostasis by integrating energy-related signals with neural substrates encoding cognitive and motivational components of feeding behaviors. Obesity and lipid-rich diets alter dopamine (DA) transmission leading to reward dysfunctions and food overconsumption. Recent reports indicate that dietary lipids can act, directly and indirectly, as functional modulators of the DA circuit. This raises the possibility that nutritional or genetic conditions affecting ‘lipid sensing’ mechanisms might lead to maladaptations of the DA system. Here, we discuss the most recent findings connecting dietary lipid sensing with DA signaling and its multimodal influence on circuits regulating food–reward processes.

现代食物环境中大量的高能量和可口饮食是导致肥胖流行的主要原因。奖赏回路通过将能量相关信号与编码喂养行为的认知和动机成分的神经基质相结合，参与身体稳态的调节。肥胖和富含脂质的饮食会改变多巴胺 (DA) 的传递，导致奖赏功能障碍和食物过度消耗。最近的报告表明，膳食脂质可以直接或间接地作为 DA 回路的功能调节剂。这增加了影响“脂质感应”机制的营养或遗传条件可能导致 DA 系统适应不良的可能性。这里，