Investigation of nutrition, dietary pattern and metabolism on human brain and behavior

National Institute Of Diabetes And Digestive And Kidney Diseases

Investigators

Abstract

The health, function and structure of the human brain is influenced by the foods that we consume and the nutrients that are present – or absent – from them. This project aims to determine how our diet and metabolism influence the brain, with an emphasis on brain regions underlying our perceptions of food, the drivers of human eating behavior, appetite, satiety as well as the higher order cognitive functions used to control our eating behavior. We are developing a clinical trial (basic experimental studies of humans) to test whether a short-term ad libitum ultra-process diet impacts basal brain dopamine levels in advance of clinically significant weight gain.