TY - JOUR TI - Need-based prioritization of behavior AU - Burnett, C Joseph AU - Funderburk, Samuel C AU - Navarrete, Jovana AU - Sabol, Alexander AU - Liang-Guallpa, Jing AU - Desrochers, Theresa M AU - Krashes, Michael J A2 - Elmquist, Joel K A2 - Dulac, Catherine A2 - Stuber, Garret D VL - 8 PY - 2019 DA - 2019/03/25 SP - e44527 C1 - eLife 2019;8:e44527 DO - 10.7554/eLife.44527 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.44527 AB - When presented with a choice, organisms need to assimilate internal information with external stimuli and past experiences to rapidly and flexibly optimize decisions on a moment-to-moment basis. We hypothesized that increasing hunger intensity would curb expression of social behaviors such as mating or territorial aggression; we further hypothesized social interactions, reciprocally, would influence food consumption. We assessed competition between these motivations from both perspectives of mice within a resident-intruder paradigm. We found that as hunger state escalated, resident animal social interactions with either a female or male intruder decreased. Furthermore, intense hunger states, especially those evoked via AgRP photoactivation, fundamentally altered sequences of behavioral choice; effects dependent on food availibility. Additionally, female, but not male, intrusion attenuated resident mouse feeding. Lastly, we noted environmental context-dependent gating of food intake in intruding mice, suggesting a dynamic influence of context cues on the expression of feeding behaviors. KW - behavior KW - optogenetics KW - competition JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -