Food Studies that Contribute to Food Addiction

      One field of research from which food addiction draws its foundation is the vast number of studies of the neurofunctioning of eating.  As noted in the Introduction, the search for a pharmaceutical intervention for obesity provided the motivation for this research.  The research uses painstaking techniques involving chemicals that block or stimulate various neurochemical activities, as well as techniques that measure neurochemical activity through neuroimaging and animal probes. Researchers have identified a number of neuropeptide elements that are active in both reward and appetite pathways including neuropeptide Y (NPY), Y1 receptors, leptin, endocannabinoids CB1, anandamide 2-arachidonoyl glycerol, orexigenic (ORX) signaling, and endogenous opioid peptides

      Individual studies are too numerous to include in this website.  However, as an means for indicating  the vast scope of food neurology literature, a bibliography is included that shows just review articles that define the neurology of appetite, eating, and satiation.  Review articles are articles that interpret, organize, or synthesize a body literature to make conclusions about advancements in a field.