About this Research Topic

Background

Food intake is associated with brain areas that control hunger, satiety, motivation for, and pleasure caused by the intake of foods. These areas integrate to promote the consumption of highly rewarding foods when hungry and stop once sated. However, the easy access to ultra-processed and highly palatable foods has led to the dysregulation of this regulatory system, resulting in increased food intake that leads to obesity. This condition reinforces the consumption of palatable and energy-dense foods and is also related to a higher prevalence of cardiovascular, metabolic, oncological, and neuropsychiatric diseases.

Feeding is a complex process that involves brain areas that control homeostasis, learning, memory, emotion, and reward, among others. Therefore, deregulation of these areas can lead to developing hyperphagia, a greater preference for obesogenic foods, and, in the short or medium term, to developing overweight and obesity. Furthermore, obesity is a pandemic related to a higher prevalence of cardiovascular, metabolic, oncological, and neuropsychiatric diseases, among others. For this reason, this Research Topic focuses on the neurobiological mechanisms that bidirectionally lead to the development of changes in eating behaviors and consuming obesogenic foods. Understanding these mechanisms requires an integrative perspective that includes an in-depth study of the brain mechanisms that control feeding behaviors and food intake and their integration with different physiological systems (i.e., gastrointestinal, neuroendocrine) and environmental factors (i.e., food availability and access).

We welcome submissions on topics including, but not limited to:
• Neurochemical, neuroinflammatory, and functional effects produced by chronic exposure to obesogenic diets on brain areas that regulate eating.
• Microbiota - obesogenic diets relationship on brain areas that regulate eating.
• Proteomic and metabolomic effects produced by chronic exposure to obesogenic diets on brain areas that regulate feeding.
• Food addiction and other alterations in eating behaviors in humans.
• Social and economic impact of ultra-processed and pleasurable.

Keywords: Dopamine, Opioid Receptors, Reward System, Hypothalamus, Food Addiction

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