一年一度的感恩节刚刚过去，而我们也在节日期间推出了感恩节特辑，快来看看吧！
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Book of the Week: The Mind-gut Connection
It’s Thanksgiving, and you can almost hear your stomach grumble… but how does the feeling of hunger ever arise? In fact, the brain constantly communicates with gut (often hailed as the “second brain”) and the microorganisms inside our body; such connection profoundly influences our mood and overall health. The book The Mind-Gut Connection takes us on a deep dive into the mind-gut connection, shedding light on ways to achieve a better health. Enjoy the book and have a great Thanksgiving!
Click here to see book reviews
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Neuro-Talk:
How does your body know you're full? - Hilary Coller
Thanksgiving: The Brain Science of Taste
Our tongue can recognize five different qualities: sweet, bitter, umami, salt and sour by sending messages to the brain that cause a predetermined response such as aversive response that is usually triggered by bitterness. In fact, studies showed that when areas that are responsible for sweet or bitter being triggered in a mouse, they act as if they are tasting sweet or bitter. However, according to Dr. Charles Zuker, a neuroscientist at Columbia University: "Taste is only a part of the experience of eating" just like Thanksgiving requires a multisensory integration since its a combination of taste, smell, texture, temperature, experience, emotion, memory and expectation.
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Neuro-Quest:
Food for Thought: Brain-Body Interactions and the Regulation of Hunger
Gut and brain engage in dialogues to coordinate our bodily functions and maintain homeostasis. The article introduces how gut alters the brain’s processing of sensory information and regulates the sensations of hunger and satiety via secreting hormones such as ghrelin and leptin. It also provides a possible explanation for eating and metabolic disorders: our brains have learned to associate foods not just with survival needs but with pleasure and rewards, causing us to consume food even without homeostatic need. Take a look.
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In this article, neuroscientist Michael Graziano suggests that hunger is a mood, and if you want to eat less, you will actually end up eating more. The neuroscientist investigates into the mechanism behind such paradoxical phenomena and the seemingly subconscious force that drives us to eat whenever we attempt to lose weight. What role does our psyche play in hunger-regulation? Read more to find out.
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Thanksgiving Special Article:
Science Reveals a Crucial Difference In Your Brain on Thanksgiving vs. Black Friday
During Thanksgiving, people meet up with friends and family and express warm gratitude to one another. Meanwhile, many go shopping to celebrate Black Friday. In both experiences, we feel rewarded, but are the feelings really the same? The article reveals the difference between the discount-induced pleasure of Black Friday and the gratitude felt on Thanksgiving -- the latter involving not just the brain’s site for dopamine release but also neural regions related to complicated social and emotional processing.
