Food perception involves our whole nervous system. Food travels through our digestive units, but the interconnection with the brain provides a gateway for understanding how the corresponding signals modulate our behavior from various aspects, from the physiological need to emotional associations.

To understand the mechanism of storing and burning body fat, we first need to get familiar with the basics of fat metabolism. The anabolic process is called lipogenesis, while the catabolic process is called lipolysis. In general, lipogenesis is activated by eating, while its reverse, lipolysis, is activated by fasting or physical activity. Most of the time, these two processes are in balance, but in the case when lipogenesis is active longer than lipolysis, fat accumulation occurs (and vice versa).

In this blog post, we are going to look into the most basic and initial perception of food – the perception of external signals. On a more conceptual level, we will look into how and for what purpose, do organisms perceive food, and how this drives behavior. We will also dive deeper into neural correlates, which provide the integration of the perceived information, into a behavior.