Overview

• Meal memory neurons in the rat ventral hippocampus encode when and where food is consumed through specialized engrams.
• These neurons communicate with the lateral hypothalamus to modulate hunger signals and influence eating behavior.
• Blocking the hippocampus-hypothalamus pathway causes lab rats to overeat and lose recall of recent meals.
• Distracted eating disrupts meal engram formation, leading to mindless snacking and increased food intake.
• Researchers suggest that reinforcing meal memory through mindful eating practices could inform new obesity treatments.