Their study found that orexin neurons play an important role in sustaining and regulating motivated behavior. To investigate, the scientists studied how changes in orexin neuron activity affected rats seeking food rewards. When the researchers suppressed orexin neuron activity using an inhibitory protein, the animals showed less motivated behavior. Understanding Loss of MotivationFuture studies will examine the brain circuits that send information to orexin neurons and receive signals from them. This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research [22K19749; 23K27360; and 23H02669 (2023)]; SENSHIN Medical Research Foundation; Naito Foundation, Japan; Takeda Science Foundation, Japan; SRF, Japan; Asahi Glass Foundation, Japan; Mishima Kaiun Memorial Foundation, Japan; Kao Health Science Foundation, Japan; and AMED, Japan (JP21wm0425014).