While urges to eat are regulated by hunger, our need for energy, and our sense of satiety or fullness, they’re also strongly influenced by sights, sounds, and smells associated with food. Dr. Ferrario’s research, which draws on concepts in addiction and learning, explores the neurobiological mechanisms of cue-triggered food craving and how these are influenced by consumption of sugary, fatty, “junk-food” diets and individual susceptibility to obesity. She will discuss how alterations in excitatory nerve-cell transmission within the brain’s reward pathway influences food craving, and how these alterations relate to eating behaviors.
Presenter:
Carrie Ferrario, Ph.D.
University of Michigan Medical School
2014 Young Investigator Grant