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Stress exposure, food intake and emotional state
This 2015 article summarizes what was said in the “Stress, Palatable Food and Reward” conference, a symposium in which four presentations were given by neuroscientists who mainly work with complex relationships among stress, food intake and emotion. Firstly, Dr Ulrich-Lai showcased her work on discovering the mechanisms by which the rewarding properties of sweet palatable foods help relieve stress. Dr Fulton also presented her rodent model study demonstrating the stimulating effects of long-term dietary lipid consumption, including its withdrawal, on stress-related outcomes. Dr Wilson then talked about his group’s research on how social hierarchy-related stress affects food intake and diet choice in female macaques, while the last speaker Dr Petrovich discussed her research program focused on defining the circuitry (shared between the cerebral cortex, amygdala, and hypothalamus) responsible for diminishing the urge to eat during emotional threat in rats. The complexity of the physiological and behavioral factors connecting stress, food intake and emotional state were apparent. [NPID: stress, palatable food, reward, emotion, cerebral cortex, amygdala, hypothalamus]
Year: 2015
