Overview:
Nearly two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight or obese. These conditions are oftentimes linked to the chronic overconsumption of highly palatable diets that despite being calorically rich, are nutritionally maladaptive. The integration of oral (i.e., taste) and postoral signals elicited by these foods and fluids as they are ingested, digested, and assimilated into the body is critical for the control of meal size and diet selection. The Schier lab seeks to understand how the chemical constituents of foods and fluids are sensed, how these oral and postoral signals are processed in the brain and channeled into the behavioral outputs that subserve energy balance.
Research Specialties:
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Behavioral Neuroscience
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Ingestive Behavior
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Chemical Senses
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Food Learning
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Systems Neuroscience
Recent News:
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December 2, 2020: Dr. Schier was awarded 5 years of R01 funding from the National Institutes of Health to study glucosensing mechanisms in the gustatory system.
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November 3, 2020: Sandrine Chometton, Ph. D. won the Ethan Sims Young Investigator Award at this year's meeting of the Obesity Society. Congratulations, Sandrine!
Recent Publications:
Myers KP, Summers MY, Geyer-Roberts E, Schier LA. The Role of Post-Ingestive Feedback in
the Development of an Enhanced Appetite for the Orosensory Properties of Glucose over
Fructose in Rats. Nutrients. 2020 Mar 18;12(3):807 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32197514/