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Q: Could you please explain what the brain metabolic sensors are? Types. location(s), functions? It's very interesting!

Debbie

A: Debbie,

Certain hypothalamic neurons can work as the detectors of substances connected to energy homeostasis including (but far from being limited to) glucose, ketone bodies, fatty acids, insulin, ghrelin, orexin, leptin, etc. Their roles are not limited to metabolic sensing but they are included it the networks integrating afferent metabolic signals from the entire body and the brain itself to initiate efferent responses responsible for the control of the, for instance, glucose and insulin levels, core body temperature, oxygenation, vasoconstriction/dilation, etc.

In the post Studies of GABA action: in vivo, in toto, and in vitro in the chart A, you might want to see the elements of, in this case, energy homeostasis, and the place of "sensors of the brain" in the control system.