Integral part of the sensory system that mediates food signaling, providing the neural basis for the regulation of food response; coordinates larval foraging and social behavior changes during development. Required in dopaminergic (DA) neurons that innervate the mushroom body for satiety to suppress appetitive memory performance; a key factor in the internal state of hunger in the brain. NPF neurons coordinately modulate diverse sensory and motor neurons important for feeding, flight, and locomotion. NPF/NPFR pathway exerts its suppressive effect on larval aversion to diverse stressful stimuli (chemical stress and noxious heat) through attenuation of TRP channel-induced neuronal excitation. NPF neural signaling system plays a physiological role in acute modulation of alcohol sensitivity in adults, rather than a general response to intoxication by sedative agents. Activation and inhibition of the NPF system reduces and enhances ethanol preference, respectively. Sexual experience, the NPF system activity and ethanol consumption are all linked; sexual deprivation is a major contributor to enhanced ethanol preference. Expressed in midgut, brain lobes and ventral nerve cord of larvae. Predominantly expressed in two pairs of protocerebral neurons in the larval CNS (at protein level). Intense expression is also seen in the fan-shaped body of the central complex and two lateral areas of the lower part of the central brain that appear to harbor the giant commissural interneurons of the giant fiber pathway (at protein level). Upon glucose feeding, two additional dNPFergic neurons are consistently detected on the ventromedial surface of the subesophageal ganglion (SEG) of third instars larvae. Expressed in a subset of sugar-responsive PAIN neurons in the thoracic body but is absent from other peripheral PAIN neurons. Expression is high in larvae seeking food and is down-regulated in late embryos coinciding with the onset of the behavior of older larvae, including food aversion, hypermobility, and cooperative burrowing. In males, expression is increased by mating and reduced by sexual deprivation. Increased NPF or NPFR activity dominantly suppresses PAIN-mediated food aversion in postfeeding larvae. Deficiency in NPF/NPFR signaling causes decreased alcohol sensitivity and overexpression causes a hypersensitive response to alcohol sedation. Controlled functional disruption of NPF or NPFR neurons rapidly triggers acute resistance to ethanol sedation. Belongs to the NPY family. On sex, drugs and satisfaction - Issue 138 of May 2012