The University of Granada will coordinate a pioneering new H2020 project called CogniTastED, which aims to shed light on how what we think about certain types of food can diminish or enhance their flavour. It will explore how this phenomenon can lead to extreme loss of appetite and weight, as well as to compulsive eating habits, among those suffering from eating disorders.
A fundamental objective of the project is to tackle unhealthy eating habits such as extreme dieting and prolonged fasting, as well as growing incidence rates of eating disorders, especially among women.
Through preclinical studies on animal models and humans, the researchers aim to devise new preventative strategies, optimize psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions, and identify behavioural indicators for the early diagnosis of eating disorders.
The CogniTastED project will bring together a strategic network of high profile experts—both from Spain and abroad—in the areas of experimental psychopathology, psychobiology, clinical nutrition, psychiatry and functional food.
Among these experts are Milagros Gallo, Director of the "Federico Olóriz" Institute of Neurosciences; Antonio Segura Carretero, Director of the Technology Centre for Functional Food Research and Development (CIDAF); María Luisa Fernández Soto from "San Cecilio" University Hospital; and Antonia Antúnez from “Vithas La Salud” Hospital. The project will be coordinated by David García-Burgos; a researcher at the UGR’s Department of Psychobiology who was recently awarded a prestigious Athenea3I postdoctoral fellowship.
García-Burgos will also be joined by internationally renowned researchers on eating disorders such as Claus Vögele, Director of the Integrative Research Unit on Social and Individual Development (INSIDE) at the University of Luxembourg, and Simone Munsch, Head of the Chair of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the University of Fribourg.
For further information please visit the following website (in Spanish):
