Projects per year
Personal profile
Research interests
For the past 25 years, Dr. Andras Hajnal's research has focused on the neural mechanisms of appetitive behaviors, such as hedonic eating, substance use and addiction. Specific areas of his research have investigated how diet-induced obesity produces changes in the brain’s taste and reward systems to perpetuate over-eating and the role of gut-brain factors in regulating reward-guided behaviors.
Dr. Hajnal's early work was the first to demonstrate that sweet taste is sufficient to stimulate dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Dr. Hajnal’s work has also documented that reward elicited by sweet tastes is relayed through the parabrachial pontine nucleus to the forebrain and development of obesity impairs gustatory processing in the hindbrain.
Recently, as part of a collaboration with bariatric surgeons and NIH scientists at NIAAA and NIDA, Dr. Hajnal has developed animal models of various bariatric surgeries for studying the beneficial and adverse effects of gastrointestinal manipulations on alcohol and opioid self-administration. The idea of using bariatric surgical animal models as a preclinical research tool to study neuro-hormonal mechanisms of addiction is novel and based on the premise that understanding what causes the switch in patients post-surgery moving away from food cravings and food addiction to develop alcohol and substance (primarily opioid) use disorder (a.k.a. ‘addiction-transfer’) could help with identifying mechanisms and targets in the brain that could be exploited in developing novel pharmacological targets to combat addiction.
A second area of research, currently funded by a Department of Defense Grant, is aimed at better understanding the mechanisms of gastrointestinal neuropeptide signaling in an animal model of spinal cord injury following weight loss surgery.
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics where Andras Hajnal is active. These topic labels come from the works of this person. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
- 12 Similar Profiles
Network
Recent external collaboration on country level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots.
Projects
- 4 Finished
Increased vulnerability to alcohol abuse after gastric bypass: Neural mechanisms
Hajnal, A. & Thanos, P.
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
2/5/16 → 1/31/17
Project: Research project
Neural Systems of Ingestive Behavior
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
4/1/10 → 3/31/11
Project: Research project
Gastric bypass surgery alters the regulation of food reward
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DIABETES AND DIGESTIVE AND KIDNEY DISEASES
4/1/09 → 3/31/10
Project: Research project
GUSTATORY REWARD AND DOPAMINE IN THE NUCLEUS ACCUMBENS
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
1/1/01 → 12/31/01
Project: Research project
Research Output
Neuro-hormonal mechanisms underlying changes in reward related behaviors following weight loss surgery: Potential pharmacological targets
Orellana, E. R., Covasa, M. & Hajnal, A., Jun 1 2019, In : Biochemical Pharmacology. 164, p. 106-114 9 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article
Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in rat reduces mu-opioid receptor levels in brain regions associated with stress and energy regulation
McGregor, M., Hamilton, J., Hajnal, A. & Thanos, P. K., Jun 2019, In : PloS one. 14, 6, e0218680.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Open Access
1
Scopus
citations
Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery triggers rapid DNA fragmentation in vagal afferent neurons in rats
Minaya, D. M., Di Lorenzo, P. M., Hajnal, A. & Czaja, K., Jan 1 2019, In : Acta neurobiologiae experimentalis. 79, 4, p. 432-444 13 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Open Access
Taste Responses in the Nucleus of the Solitary Tract of Awake Obese Rats Are Blunted Compared With Those in Lean Rats
Weiss, M. S., Hajnal, A., Czaja, K. & Di Lorenzo, P. M., Jul 30 2019, In : Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. 13, 35.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Open Access
1
Scopus
citations
Antidepressant-like effects of insulin and IGF-1 are mediated by IGF-1 receptors in the brain
Mueller, P. L., Pritchett, C. E., Wiechman, T. N., Zharikov, A. & Hajnal, A., Oct 2018, In : Brain Research Bulletin. 143, p. 27-35 9 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
1
Scopus
citations