PSYCH 3313 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Adipocyte, Solitary Tract, Cholecystokinin
17 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Why do we eat: energy and specific nutrients needed by our bodies, pleasure, complex cultural and psychological factors. Types of eaters: herbivores = plant eaters, carnivores = meat eaters, omnivores = obtain nutrients from both plants and animals. Cultural differences in food preferences may be biologically based: inuit = mostly meat, use of dairy products correlates with geographical distribution of lactose intolerance, food preferences learned in utero. Factors in selecting food: taste, sensory-specific satiety, learned taste aversion = association with illness or poor nutrition, learned taste preference = preference for flavor of food that contains necessary nutrient. Neuropeptides and hunger stimulation: ghrelin = peptide synthesized in the pancreas and stomach that is released during fasting and stimulates eating behavior, orexin = peptide produced in the lateral hypothalamus that stimulates hunger (aka hypocretin) Central pathways of hunger: glucose deficit sensed by liver vagus nerve, nst in medulla.
