Neurocomputational approach to nutrient-based food choices in rhesus monkeys
Time
Monday, 19. September 2022
11:00 - 12:30
Location
ZT 702
Organizer
Chi-Yu Lee and Einat Couzin-Fuchs
Speaker:
Fei-Yang Huang, MD, PhD Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK
Neurocomputational approach to nutrient-based food choices in rhesus monkeys
Animals acquire essential macronutrients, such as fat, sugar, and protein, from foods selected from their foraging environment. However, how animals, especially primates, adapt their food choices to regulate nutrient intake remains largely unknown. In this seminar, I will introduce a novel behavioural paradigm to study controlled food choices and nutrient preferences in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). By analysing how monkeys make trade-offs to obtain their preferred nutrients, we found that the monkeys consistently showed stronger preferences for sugar content over fat content but to distinct extent compared to preferences for higher liquid amount. Furthermore, by quantifying the physical interactions between liquid foods and oral-mimicking biological surface (e.g. pig tongue), we identified that the monkeys’ nutrient preferences were best explained by the distinct mouthfeel carried by the nutrient constituents of the liquids, but not the calorie content. Consequently, food choices guided by subjective nutrient preferences biased the monkeys’ nutrient balance away from the recommended diet reference in the Geometric Framework for Nutrition (GFN). Combined with computational modelling and single-neuron recording, this nutrient neurophysiology framework holds unique promise to reveal neural mechanisms underlying dynamic nutrient food choices as well as human overeating and obesity.
Fei-Yang Huang received his PhD in Neurophysiology from the University of Cambridge, UK, after he received his MD and minor degree in Economics at National Taiwan University, Taiwan. Starting from Oct 2022, He will join the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford as a Wellcome Trust-funded Research Associate, combining multichannel neuronal recording and computational modelling to investigate neurophysiology of nutrient and social decision-making in rhesus monkeys.