About
The work of the Appetite and Obesity group encompasses a broad spectrum of basic and applied research, addressing behavioural and psychological processes that govern appetite expression at a variety of levels from the molecular to the whole person.
Our key research themes include:
- Identification, development and assessment of functional foods to improve the diet and health of consumers.
- Influence of the food environment and food marketing on food choice, consumption and bodyweight in children and adults.
- Maternal feeding practices, development of food preference and weight gain in infants.
- Psychopharmacology of appetite and pharmaceutical/nutraceutical agents for the treatment of obesity.
- Development and evaluation of interventions, including weight management programmes, for the treatment of obesity and interventions to increase healthy eating and physical activity in children and adults.
- Attention, emotion and motivation: cognitive, addictive and neurophysiological factors in appetite and the hedonic evaluation of taste and flavour, learned and unlearned controls of food intake.
- Obesity and mental health.