When the vagus whispers, the dopamine reward system listens

Reward has traditionally been viewed as a brain-centered process driven by mesolimbic dopamine circuits. However, growing evidence suggests that interoceptive signals also shape reward processing. In this talk, I will present multi-scale in vivo and ex vivo evidence showing that the gut-brain vagal axis gates mesolimbic dopamine activity and modulates both food- and drug-induced reinforcement. These findings challenge the classical brain-centric model of reward and highlight gut-derived vagal signals as key regulators of motivation and reinforcement, with implications for eating disorders and addiction.

Short bio: Giuseppe Gangarossa is Professor of Neurobiology at Université Paris Cité. His research explores the molecular and cellular mechanisms governing homeostatic and hedonic circuits that regulate energy balance and feeding behaviors, drawing inspiration from the emerging field of metabo-psychiatry. He earned a Pharm.D. from the University of Bologna (Italy) and a European Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Bologna and Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) in 2011. Between 2011 and 2016, he pursued postdoctoral training in France (Montpellier, Paris) and Canada (London, Montreal). Over time, his research evolved from pure neurosciences to integrative physiology, reinforcing his idea that the brain does not act alone. In 2017, he was appointed Associate Professor at Université Paris Cité and promoted to Full Professor in 2022. His recent distinctions include the membership to the Institut Universitaire de France (2023-present) and the Humboldt Fellowship (2025-present). As a Humboldtian, he is also affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics (Tubingen, Germany).

A committed advocate for equity in academia, Prof. Gangarossa actively works to combat discrimination and LGBTQ+ stigmatization as a member of the Alba Network.

Host: Meryl Malezieux