Choosing what to eat is a crucial task we all face daily, given the importance of food for our nutritional health, well-being and longevity. Nowadays, the rise of food-related health challenges, and the low success of most campaigns promoting healthy eating, prompts for evidence-based nutrition programs that are grounded in theoretical knowledge on the cognitive processes underlying food-related behaviors. To that aim, psychology and neuroscience have begun to shed light on these cognitive processes using multidisciplinary approaches including behavioral and neuroimaging studies. A key task for the emerging field of food cognition moving forward is to elucidate how the complex interplay between mechanisms inherited from our ancestors- who evolved in environments with no supermarkets nor ready-to-eat foods- and modern food-abundant environments, shape our food-related behaviors.
Notably, today, the uncoupling of caloric consumption and restoration of homeostatic needs is a major driver of the global obesity epidemic, which calls for research and action. While eating requires complex psychological abilities to search, collect and prepare food in a safe manner, playing a crucial role in human evolution, such cognitive processes have long been a blind spot in psychological sciences. Recent advances revealed the significant role of brain mechanisms in shaping human food-related behaviors and nutritional intake, opening a new research avenue for cognitive sciences. The goal of the present Research Topic is to promote the emerging, but promising field of food cognition, which notably has an important impact beyond academia. Recent findings investigating the interplay of nutritional and cognitive aspects of food preferences, food intake and eating behaviors are the target of the present Research Topic.
This Research Topic aims to compile the latest research on cognitive and brain processes underlying food-related behaviors, including sensory perception, food preferences and nutritional intake. Eating behaviors changes across the lifespan are of great interest for this framework, therefore research can cover any age range (infants, children, adults, elder adults) and populations (healthy normal weight, eating disorders, patients). We welcome original research papers as well as reviews, meta-analyses of published literature, and commentaries.
Choosing what to eat is a crucial task we all face daily, given the importance of food for our nutritional health, well-being and longevity. Nowadays, the rise of food-related health challenges, and the low success of most campaigns promoting healthy eating, prompts for evidence-based nutrition programs that are grounded in theoretical knowledge on the cognitive processes underlying food-related behaviors. To that aim, psychology and neuroscience have begun to shed light on these cognitive processes using multidisciplinary approaches including behavioral and neuroimaging studies. A key task for the emerging field of food cognition moving forward is to elucidate how the complex interplay between mechanisms inherited from our ancestors- who evolved in environments with no supermarkets nor ready-to-eat foods- and modern food-abundant environments, shape our food-related behaviors.
Notably, today, the uncoupling of caloric consumption and restoration of homeostatic needs is a major driver of the global obesity epidemic, which calls for research and action. While eating requires complex psychological abilities to search, collect and prepare food in a safe manner, playing a crucial role in human evolution, such cognitive processes have long been a blind spot in psychological sciences. Recent advances revealed the significant role of brain mechanisms in shaping human food-related behaviors and nutritional intake, opening a new research avenue for cognitive sciences. The goal of the present Research Topic is to promote the emerging, but promising field of food cognition, which notably has an important impact beyond academia. Recent findings investigating the interplay of nutritional and cognitive aspects of food preferences, food intake and eating behaviors are the target of the present Research Topic.
This Research Topic aims to compile the latest research on cognitive and brain processes underlying food-related behaviors, including sensory perception, food preferences and nutritional intake. Eating behaviors changes across the lifespan are of great interest for this framework, therefore research can cover any age range (infants, children, adults, elder adults) and populations (healthy normal weight, eating disorders, patients). We welcome original research papers as well as reviews, meta-analyses of published literature, and commentaries.