{"id":870878,"date":"2026-08-25T12:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/870878\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T12:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:26:12","slug":"meet-orexin-the-brain-chemical-behind-staying-motivated-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/870878\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Orexin, The Brain Chemical Behind Staying Motivated : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Motivation (or a lack of it) shapes our lives in ways large and small every day: From changing careers to changing TV channels, we’re guided by what motivates us<\/a> and what we find rewarding.<\/p>\n

In a new study published in PNAS<\/a>, researchers led by a team from Nagoya University in Japan have identified neurons that produce the chemical orexin<\/a> as playing an important role in food-reward motivation in rats.<\/p>\n

These neurons are located in the brain’s hypothalamus and have previously been linked to wakefulness<\/a>, energy expenditure, and indeed motivation<\/a>. The researchers behind this latest study wanted to look more closely at that link to motivation.<\/p>\n

“A potential mechanism for translating expectations into sustained action.” <\/p>\n

\u2013 Neuroscientist Hiroyuki Mizoguchi<\/p>\n

Their experiments showed the influence of orexin moment to moment, and how closely it’s involved in working out whether a reward is worth the effort to get it \u2013 a crucial calculation when it comes to motivation.<\/p>\n

\"YouTube frameborder=”0\u2033 allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen><\/p>\n

“Our observations highlight that orexin activities are implicated in the motivational process in rats and that dynamic changes in activation of orexin neurons may be involved in reward-seeking behavior based on reward prediction,” write<\/a> the researchers in their published paper.<\/p>\n

“In particular, orexin neuron response depends on degree\/size of effort; these changes may indicate expectation for incentive against one’s efforts.”<\/p>\n

Through genetic modifications, the researchers were able to artificially boost or limit the activity of orexin-producing neurons. In food reward tests<\/a>, the animals were willing to work harder for their food when orexin neurons were activated, but gave up more quickly when the neurons were inhibited.<\/p>\n

In addition, real-time monitoring of natural orexin neuron behavior showed increased activity before the rats got a reward, and decreased activity afterward. <\/p>\n

When a reward was expected but didn’t appear, orexin activity remained high.<\/p>\n

\"RatRats were tested on tasks and rewarded with food. (Dong et al., PNAS, 2026)<\/p>\n

The harder the rats had to work for the reward, the stronger the activity in these neurons<\/a>. This suggests orexin activity might be able to be used as a marker of the effort involved in pursuing an expected reward.<\/p>\n

“Our study demonstrated significant changes in orexin neuron activity depending on expected rewards and the effort required, suggesting a potential mechanism for translating expectations into sustained action,” says<\/a> neuroscientist Hiroyuki Mizoguchi, from Nagoya University.<\/p>\n

In further tests where researchers controlled orexin neuron activity when rewards were anticipated, reducing activity seemed to reduce motivation, whereas increasing it didn’t correspond to increased motivation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s possible that these neurons are important for keeping motivation at a certain baseline, but don’t work exactly like a dial that can be turned up or down.<\/p>\n

“Therefore, orexin is crucial for linking predicted expectations with motivated behavior,” write<\/a> the researchers. “Moreover, optimization of orexin activity is necessary to overcome difficulties during motivated behaviors.”<\/p>\n

\"Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n

All of these findings still need to be translated to the human brain, of course. But we also have an orexin system<\/a>, making this an important question for future research on committing to a task<\/a> and staying committed to it.<\/p>\n

Disrupted motivation is linked to several mental disorders, including depression<\/a> and addiction<\/a>, and by knowing more about the workings of orexin<\/a> in the brain, we might be better able to treat these conditions too.<\/p>\n

That’s still some way off, though. Next, the researchers want to look at the input and output brain circuits that connect to the orexin neurons<\/a> to determine the natural chain of events that activates or deactivates them.<\/p>\n

Related: One Brain Chemical May Be Key to Breaking a Habit, Study Finds<\/a><\/p>\n

Motivation is such a fundamental driver of behavior that any new clues about how it works are likely to have widespread implications.<\/p>\n

“A better and further understanding of orexinergic mechanisms underlying motivated behaviors would provide insights into the ways that motivation can be developed, and the disorders can be overcome,” write<\/a> the researchers.<\/p>\n

The research has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article was fact-checked by Rebecca Dyer<\/a> and edited by Rebecca Dyer<\/a>. While we pride ourselves on our process, we are only human. If you spot a mistake, please let us know<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Motivation (or a lack of it) shapes our lives in ways large and small every day: From changing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84,315],"class_list":["post-870878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-msft-content"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}