Grant: Operating Grant - PA: Inst of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes -Bridge Funding

One last morsel of food remains on your dinner plate. You hesitate but in spite of feeling full you manage to manage to eat the last bite. Your plate is clean and your hunger satisfied. Without a thought of eating anything more your eyes glance over the dessert menu. The anticipation of the novel sensory experience presented by these tasty desserts makes you perk-up and before you know it you are devouring another mouthful. The rewarding effects of palatable foods can drive us to eat even when we are feeling full. Which mechanisms in the brain are responsible for motivating us to consume foods rich in fat and sugar? Our work explores the neural pathways that underlie motivation for food. Research has identified circulating hormones and nutrients that act in the brain to regulate food intake and energy expenditure. We and others have demonstrated how some of these signals, like leptin and insulin, can target neurons of the midbrain dopamine system that are an important component of the brain circuitry controlling the rewarding effects of food and drugs of abuse. On the one hand, our goal is to discover exactly how hormones and nutrients impact dopamine signaling and food-motivated behavior. On the other hand, we are interested in determining how eating a diet rich in fat and sugar elicits adaptations in dopamine target regions that contribute to motivation for food. Excessive intake of palatable food with high caloric density is largely responsible for the epidemic of obesity. As Canadians are confronted with the health, social and economic concerns of obesity and obesity-related illnesses, elucidating the mechanisms that regulate motivation for food remains an important goal.