Crunchometer, a low-cost acoustic system, precisely tracks feeding microstructure and validates semaglutide's intake suppression.

Elucidating the neuronal circuits governing appetite requires precise, high-resolution monitoring of solid food consumption microstructure. Existing tools often fall short, being either costly or lacking the temporal resolution needed to align feeding events with neuronal activity. Understanding these intricate circuits, particularly within the hypothalamus, is crucial for addressing appetite dysregulation and developing effective interventions for conditions like obesity.

Researchers developed the Crunchometer, a low-cost, open-source acoustic system utilizing computational algorithms to generate high-resolution feeding ethograms from solid food consumption sounds. They validated its sensitivity across different energy states (hunger/satiety) in freely behaving mice. The system's ability to detect semaglutide-induced suppression of intake and reduced preference for a high-fat diet was also assessed. Furthermore, the Crunchometer was integrated with in vivo electrophysiology in the lateral hypothalamus (LH) of mice to identify 'meal-related' neurons. Calcium imaging was employed to characterize distinct subsets of LH GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons.

The Crunchometer system reliably confirmed its sensitivity to changes in feeding microstructure across different energy states (hunger/satiety). Its validation demonstrated robust performance in detecting pharmacological effects.

It successfully detected semaglutide-induced suppression of solid food intake and a reduced preference for a high-fat diet in mice. Leveraging its integration with in vivo recordings, the system identified 'meal-related' neurons within the lateral hypothalamus (LH) that track entire meals rather than just individual feeding bouts. Calcium imaging further revealed that distinct subsets of LH GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons exhibited specific tuning, responding to feeding only, licking only, or both behaviors. These findings highlight that LH neuronal ensembles differentially encode the consumption of solid food versus liquid sucrose, demonstrating the Crunchometer's utility for high-resolution neural correlate analysis.