13th Annual Postgraduate Nutrition Symposium - Protective Nutrients: Your Brain Can Help You Eat Better

2011 13th Annual
Postgraduate Nutrition
Symposium:
Your Brain Can Help
You Eat Better

2010 12th Annual
Postgraduate
Nutrition
Symposium:
Nutrition and Global
Health

Symposium:
Practical Approaches
to the Treatment
of Obesity

Training Programs

Archived descriptions
of Postgraduate
Nutrition Symposia
from past years:

The 13th Annual
Postgraduate Nutrition Symposium

Your Brain Can Help You Eat Better

Do you control your brain or does your brain control you?

Recorded July 13-14, 2011

The rise in obesity levels has prompted emerging research on the cognitive, behavioral and decision sciences that are relevant for food intake regulation. Various factors such as food advertisements, exercise, and environmental distractions impact self-control and food choices. Simultaneously, multiple neural mechanisms influence the brain and behavior outcomes. Scientists and researchers are working to better understand how these sciences can be integrated in the study of human nutrition and obesity, so recommendations for health can be improved.

On July 13-14, 2011, a panel of world-renowned physicians and researchers presented novel integrative research on the brain basis of human food intake and obesity.

Below are links Webcasts of each of the presentations given at the 13th Annual Postgraduate Nutrition Symposium: Your Brain Can Help You Eat Better, in Boston, MA.

Click on a red link to open the Webcast of that presentation in a new window.

Welcome	W. Allan Walker, M.D. Conrad Taff Professor of Nutrition and Pediatrics; Director, Division of Nutrition, Harvard Medical School; Director, Mucosal Immunology Laboratory; Massachusetts General Hospital George L. Blackburn, MD S. Daniel Abraham Associate Professor of Nutrition; Associate Director of Nutrition, Division of Nutrition, Harvard Medical School Director, Center for the Study of Nutrition Medicine; Chief, Nutrition/Metabolism Laboratory, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
SESSION IA: Basic Science: How the Brain Can Influence Food Intake	Moderator: Alvaro Pascual-Leone, M.D., Ph.D. Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Overview: Neurology Objectives of the Symposium	Miguel Alonso-Alonso, M.D., M.Phil. Instructor in Neurology, Harvard Medical School; Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Learning and the Motivation to Eat: Brain and Behavior”	Gorica Petrovich, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Boston College
Multiple Mechanisms for Reward-Learning in the Brain: Relevance for Food Intake	John P. O’Doherty, D.Phil. Professor of Psychology, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology
SESSION IB: Basic Science: How the Brain Can Influence Food Intake	Moderator: Alvaro Pascual-Leone, M.D., Ph.D. Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Social Influence, the Brain, and Obesity: Applying Agent-Based Computational Modeling	Ross A. Hammond, Ph.D. Senior Fellow, Economics Studies Program; Director, Center on Social Dynamics and Policy, The Brookings Institution
Brain and Obesity: Causes and Consequences	Dana Small, Ph.D. Associate Fellow, John B. Pierce Laboratory; Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine
Roundtable Discussion
SESSION IIA: Cognitive Function and Regulation of Food Choices	Moderator: Steven Heymsfield, M.D. Pennington Biomedical Research Center
Priming Obesity: Automatic Effects of Food Marketing	Jennifer Harris, Ph.D., M.B.A. Director of Marketing Initiatives, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Yale University
Thought for Food: How Imagined Consumption Reduces Actual Consumption	Carey K. Morewedge, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Marketing, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University
SESSION IIB: Cognitive Function and Regulation of Food Choices	Moderator: George L. Blackburn, M.D., Ph.D. Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Effects of Exercise on Brain and Cognitive Function	Kirk Erickson, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh
A Limited Resource Model of Self-Control: Implications for Eating Better	Kathleen D. Vohs, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Marketing, McKnight Presidential Scholar and Land O' Lakes Professor of Excellence in Marketing, University of Minnesota
Roundtable Discussion
SESSION IIIA: Translational Initiatives for Obesity Prevention	Moderator: Jason Riis, Ph.D. Harvard Business School
Combating the Sugar, Salt and Fat Addiction	David Kessler, M.D. Professor of Pediatrics Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think	Brian C. Wansink, Ph.D. John Dyson Endowed Chair, Applied Economics and Management Department; Director Food and Brand Lab, Cornell University
MIT Media Lab Objects that Help People Think about Their Actions and Change Their Behavior	Sajid Sadi, Ph.D. Candidate Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
SESSION IIIB: Translational Initiatives for Obesity Prevention	Moderator: Jason Riis, Ph.D. Harvard Business School
But How Did The Rat Feel?: Practical Observations From a Career in Commercial Weight Loss	Len Tacconi Global Commercial Leader, Mobile Health at Merck
Helping People Lose It!	Charles Teague CEO, FitNow, Inc.
Roundtable Discussion
Let’s Move! A Public Engagement Initiative to Address Childhood Obesity	Christie L. Hager, J.D., M.P.H. Regional Director, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Region I, Let’s Move!
Closing Remarks	George L. Blackburn, M.D., Ph.D. S. Daniel Abraham Associate Professor of Nutrition, Associate Director of Nutrition, Division of Nutrition, Harvard Medical School; Director, Center for the Study of Nutrition Medicine; Chief, Nutrition/Metabolism Laboratory, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

This program was made possible through unrestricted educational grants from:

Abbott Nutrition,
Center for the Study of Nutrition Medicine
Boston Nutrition Obesity Research Center
The Coca-Cola Company
The Peanut Institute,
Ajinomoto U.S.A. Inc.
American Society for Nutrition
Dairy Research Institute/National Dairy Council
The Conrad Taff Teaching Fund
S. Daniel Abraham Teaching Fund
and the Harvard Center for Healthy Living

Presented by
The Division of Nutrition and Harvard Clinical Nutrition Research Center
Harvard Medical School

in conjunction with

Department of Nutrition
Harvard School of Public health

and

Boston Nutrition Obesity Research Center

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The 13th Annual Postgraduate Nutrition Symposium

Your Brain Can Help You Eat Better

Do you control your brain or does your brain control you?

The 13th Annual
Postgraduate Nutrition Symposium