Hunger-Driven Motivational State Competition

Goal-directed behaviors are sets of motor actions that direct an animal toward an explicit target object, an interaction that promotes individual survival and/or maintains the species. Despite the necessity of motivated behaviors ranging from ingestive to reproductive to aggressive/defensive exploits, an organism can only perform a single action at any given time, highlighting the tremendous flexibility and speed with which the brain can coordinate complex decision-making. We investigate the role distinct levels of satiety play on shaping innate, motivated drive states as well as the subsets of neurons capable of perturbing innate behavioral choice.