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Understanding the mechanisms of food intake and obesity
Author(s) -
Rolls E. T.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
obesity reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.845
H-Index - 162
eISSN - 1467-789X
pISSN - 1467-7881
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-789x.2007.00321.x
Subject(s) - appetite , sensory system , palatability , obesity , neuroscience , psychology , medicine , biology , food science , endocrinology
Rapid progress is being made in understanding the brain-processing and related psychology of the sensory propertiesof food, and how the satiety (fullness) signals producedduring and after eating regulate appetite. While brain mech-anisms control appetite, a number of sensory and environ-mental factors contribute to overstimulation of the sensorysystems, producing sensory reward signals that are strongerthan can always be controlled easily by satiety signals (1,2).This knowledge makes it seem very likely that, whilesatiety signals have not changed in the last 30 years,changes in the same period in the sensory side of the controlprocess mean that they are now being overridden, contrib-uting to the increasing incidence of obesity. One implica-tion of this work is that, if factors on the sensory side ofthe appetite control process could be regulated, it wouldopen avenues to address obesity prevention and control.From the neuroscience and psychology perspective, thereare, however, many other mechanisms that interact withthe brain and contribute to obesity.