Great conversation with Pete Wells and Ed Levine on the merits of pleasure in eating healthy. Out on the Special Sauce podcast in the near future.
@danasmall.bsky.social
Professor and Canada Excellence Research Chair in Metabolism and Brain, McGill University
Abstract submissions are open for SSIB's 33rd Annual Meeting! www.ssib.org/2026/abstrac... The annual meeting will be from August 5-9, 2026 in Philadelphia, PA. Travel Awards Available to support students, post-docs, and new and international investigators: www.ssib.org/web/awards.php
SSIB 2026 | Philadelphia, PA
ssib.org
Looking forward to our MARS Speakers at the 33rd Annual SSIB meeting this year! We will be hearing from Corby Martin, @camillanord.bsky.social, Randy Seely, and Daniela Cota. Join us August 5-9 in Philadelphia, PA!
"The interoceptive origin of reinforcement learning" http://dlvr.it/TPHbz0 Frederike H. Petzschner, @danasmall.bsky.social & colleagues @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social #SfN2025
Is overeating driven by hedonism? @danasmall.bsky.social &co argue that the pleasure of eating food is not a driver of the #obesity epidemic, but rather the regular consumption of an unhealthy diet blunts sensitivity to interoceptive signals that drive food reward #neurosky 🧪 plos.io/4nTlHQc
Amid lots of uncertainty, anger, and exhaustion I am excited to share this work from my incredibly talented MSTP and @nuincomm.bsky.social student Haley Province. In it we explore the fascinating and powerful anti-aversive properties of GIPR agonists
GIP receptor agonism suppresses inflammation-induced aversion and food intake via distinct circuits https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.12.669936v1
The GLP-1RA/GIP agonist tirzepatide increased risk of early worsening of diabetic #retinopathy in #T2D, similar to effects of GLP-1RA treatment but conversely had a protective effect against new retinal complications in those without retinopathy link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🔓
Early worsening of diabetic retinopathy in individuals with type 2 diabetes treated with tirzepatide: a real-world cohort study - Diabetologia
Aims/hypothesis Early worsening of diabetic retinopathy (EWDR) has been described during treatment with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists including subcutaneous semaglutide. Whether EWDR occur...
link.springer.com
One third of kids 12-17 in the US have pre-diabetes. gis.cdc.gov/grasp/diabet...
Spotlight - United States Diabetes Surveillance System
Diabetes Atlas(maps) of national, county and state-level data and trends
gis.cdc.gov
Double-blind placebo controlled trial (led by UAB faculty Dr. Timothy Garvey) demonstrates >20% weight loss with co-administration of cagrilintide (which targets amylin receptors) with semaglutide (which targets GLP-1 receptors). www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
I think Mark is onto something with this one. Totally agree that there is something wrong with onions. open.substack.com/pub/markscha...
Something is Wrong with Onions
They are getting less irritating and less pungent, which means they’re losing flavour. That isn’t good.
open.substack.com
Nothing beats the feeling when your research gets picked up by the media! 🎉 Our latest study is featured on NRK – so great to see science reaching a wider audience. 🔬📰 #ScienceCommunication #NRK www.nrk.no/trondelag/kj...
Denne snacksen kan redusere nytelsen av sex og mat
nrk.no
🚨 New Article Alert! 🚨 Our latest research reveals how long-term consumption of a cafeteria (CAF) diet impacts the ventral tegmental area in rats. 🍔🍟🍩#Neuroskyence @uitnorgesarktiske.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
For the past couple of years I met weekly with 3 amazing younger scientists @lilweb.bsky.social @debyee.bsky.social @rikepetzschner.bsky.social to share ideas and teach each other. No agenda. It was often the favorite part of my week. Then we started writing. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The interoceptive origin of reinforcement learning
Rewards play a crucial role in sculpting all motivated behavior. Traditionally, research on reinforcement learning has centered on how rewards guide l…
sciencedirect.com
#ResearchRewind: "Habitual daily intake of a sweet and fatty snack modulates reward processing in humans" http://dlvr.it/TKpXYF @cp-cellmetabolism.bsky.social @danasmall.bsky.social
A drop of milkshake takes a wild ride as it passes through the body. Rachel and Kiersten and the team came up with cool strategies for visualizing food passing through the mouse GI tract and mapping the activity of the same 100s of brainstem neurons across weeks during feeding and other behaviors.
I’m so excited to share our preprint on how brainstem neurons sense and integrate multiple body signals during food consumption. We imaged 1000s of neurons across the lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPBN) in behaving mice. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
open.substack.com/pub/markscha.... As a former president of the society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior @ssib, I recommend this great read describing what we are up against
The Ingredients' Ingredients
Is it possible for science to grasp the complexity of ultraprocessed foods?
open.substack.com
Join us for the next edition of Neurogenesis on March 26 at @theneuro.bsky.social, featuring @danasmall.bsky.social & @yasharneuro.bsky.social! Learn about their research on gut-brain connections and the aging brain & network with peers at the post-event reception.🧠 Register now: mcgill.ca/x/iw5
🚨📃New Wassum Lab Paper📃🚨 Out today, @jackiegio.bsky.social discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... Free full text: rdcu.be/eaxEv
A dual-pathway architecture for stress to disrupt agency and promote habit - Nature
Adaptive decision-making often requires an understanding of our agency in a situation; however, chronic stress can disrupt agency and promote inflexible, habitual behaviour by turning off a brain path...
nature.com
Please join us for the Neurobiology of Ingestive Behavior Keystone Conference in spectacular Pacific Grove. vimeo.com/1058375928/2...
25D4-Event Promo-V2
This is "25D4-Event Promo-V2" by Keystone Symposia on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
vimeo.com
2024 was the first full calendar year for Imaging Neuroscience @mitpress - 350 papers published. We're proud of how the brain imaging community enthusiastically embraced open access non-profit publishing. Our aim is to be *your* journal. Full size PDF: drive.google.com/file/d/1M170...
Very cool! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Identification of the subventricular tegmental nucleus as brainstem reward center
Rewards are essential for motivation, decision-making, memory, and mental health. We identified the subventricular tegmental nucleus (SVTg) as a brainstem reward center. In mice, reward and its predic...
science.org
The scientist who is responsible for driving GLP-1 drugs for the treatment of obesity and testing them for prevention of Alzheimer's disease—Lotte Bjerre Knudsen— tells her story in a remarkable conversation. Full transcript, or video, all free, no ads. erictopol.substack.com/p/lotte-bjer...
Lotte Bjerre Knudsen: The Scientist Who Drove GLP-1 Drugs For Obesity and Alzheimer's
Facts, data, and analytics about biomedical matters.
erictopol.substack.com
Our manuscript was accepted for publication just before Christmas 🎁
Can we use macronutrients to understand altered food reward in depression? Our new preprint shows that patients with MDD report lower wanting & liking for foods rich in fat or protein (vs. carbs). #neuroscience 🩺 W/ @corcerebrum.bsky.social @neuromadlab.bsky.social www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Interesting new paper showing flavor nutrient conditioning is associated with D2R binding potential, intake and not pleasantness. Also conserved in obesity and after bariatric surgery. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Postingestive reward acts through behavioral reinforcement and is conserved in obesity and after bariatric surgery
Obesity has been associated with altered reward-related eating behavior and brain changes that may be related to overeating. This behavioral and neuroimaging study shows that postingestive nutrient st...
journals.plos.org