Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Learning Of Food Preferences: Mechanisms And Implications For Obesity & Metabolic Diseases, Hans-Rudolf Berthoud, Christopher D. Morrison, Karen Ackroff, Anthony Sclafani

Publications and Research

Omnivores, including rodents and humans, compose their diets from a wide variety of potential foods. Beyond the guidance of a few basic orosensory biases such as attraction to sweet and avoidance of bitter, they have limited innate dietary knowledge and must learn to prefer foods based on their flavors and postoral effects. This review focuses on postoral nutrient sensing and signaling as an essential part of the reward system that shapes preferences for the associated flavors of foods. We discuss the extensive array of sensors in the gastrointestinal system and the vagal pathways conveying information about ingested nutrients to the …