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Chemogenetic activation of the lateral hypothalamus reverses early life stress‐induced deficits in motivational drive

Altered motivated behaviour is a cardinal feature of several neuropsychiatric conditions including mood disorders. One well‐characterized antecedent to the development of mood disorders is exposure to early life stress (ELS). A key brain substrate controlling motivated behaviour is the lateral hypothalamus (LH). Here, we examined the effect of ELS on LH activation and the motivation to self‐administer sucrose. We tested whether chemogenetic activation of LH circuits could modify sucrose responding in ELS rats and examined the impact on LH cell populations. Male rat pups were maternally separated for 0 or 3 h on postnatal days 2–14. During adolescence, rats received bilateral injections of hM3D(Gq), the excitatory designer receptor exclusively activated by designer drugs, into LH. In adulthood, rats were trained to self‐administer sucrose and tested under a progressive ratio schedule to determine their motivation for reward following injection with either vehicle or 5 mg/kg clozapine‐N‐oxide. Brains were processed for Fos‐protein immunohistochemistry. ELS significantly suppressed lever responding for sucrose, indicating a long‐lasting impact of ELS on motivation circuits. hM3D(Gq) activation of LH increased responding, normalizing deficits in ELS rats, and increased Fos‐positive orexin and MCH cell numbers within LH. Our findings indicate that despite being susceptible to environmental stressors, LH circuits retain the capacity to overcome ELS‐induced deficits in motivated behaviour.