Tiny structure in the brain could be driving how much you eat
A part of the brain that is about the size of a sunflower seed in people could play a big role in our food consumption
By Carissa Wong
10 September 2025
The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis is part of a bigger, banded structure in the brain called the stria terminalis
My Box/Alamy
A brain structure that seems to influence food consumption could one day be targeted to enhance interventions for weight loss or gain.
Studies have shown that activating neurons in this structure, called the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) – located around the centre of the brain and about the size of a sunflower seed in people – increases food intake in mice. But it was unknown whether taste influences its activity.
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To learn more about its function, Charles Zuker at Columbia University in New York and his colleagues first imaged the brains of mice while they drank water flavoured with one of the five basic tastes – sweet, bitter, sour, salty and umami. The researchers previously linked enjoying sweet tastes to activity in a region called the amygdala, and have now pinpointed neurons there that only became activated in response to sweet water.
These neurons then activated others in the BNST, sometimes called the “extended amygdala”. This is the first evidence that this structure receives taste signals, says Haijiang Cai at the University of Arizona, who wasn’t involved in the study.
The researchers then wanted to understand whether these activated BNST neurons influence dietary consumption, so they genetically engineered the cells so that they didn’t activate when mice tasted sweet water. Over 10 minutes, these mice drank substantially less than normal ones, suggesting that activation of BNST neurons enhances consumption of sweet tastes.
