CCMN Lecture Series: Dr Ben Reiner, University of Pennsylvania

Abstract:  Increase in the availability of hyperpalatable foods contributes to the obesity epidemic.  Sensory-specific satiety is a transient reduction in motivation and pleasantness for a recently consumed food, and while evolutionarily beneficial to promote consumption of nutritionally diverse foods, excess availability of hyperpalatable foods stimulates consumption beyond caloric need.  Our work examines satiety as a hedonic process and identifies sex-specific hindbrain neuroendocrine mechanisms and circuits associated with the regulation of satiety.  Data describing our efforts to characterize the number and diversity of reward circuits will also be presented.