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The arcuate nucleus is a central area involved in the regulation of metabolic thermogenesis in peripheral organs including brown adipose tissue (BAT). However, the efferent pathways from this nucle...

Psychological stress induces hyperthermia in many mammalian species. We have shown that psychological stress induces heat production in brown adipose tissue (BAT) through activation of sympathetic premotor neurons in the rostral medullary raphe (rMR) (Lkhagvasuren et al., 2011). The present study investigated the central circuit mechanism that drives stress signaling to the BAT-controlling premotor neurons. Rats exposed to social defeat stress, a sociopsychological stress model, exhibited increases in BAT and abdominal temperature. This stress response was eliminated by a nanoinjection of AP5 and CNQX, glutamate receptor antagonists, into the rMR. This stress activated neurons in the dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH) that directly project to the rMR and inhibition of neurons in the DMH with muscimol injections eliminated the stress-induced BAT thermogenesis and hyperthermia. Supporting functional contribution of the DMH-rMR monosynaptic pathway in the stress-driven BAT thermogenesis, in vivo optogenetic stim...