Public Talk at the University of Virginia on Friday, January 17

This Friday, I'll be giving an invited lecture at the University of Virginia, my undergraduate alma mater.  I was kindly invited by a medical student named Robert Abbott, and it worked out well because I was already traveling to Charlottesville.

The talk will be titled "Why Do We Overeat?  A Neurobiological Perspective".  Here's the teaser:

Obesity is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized nations, yet this is a relatively recent phenomenon.  In the United States, increasing obesity prevalence has paralleled a gradual increase of daily energy intake.  Why do most Americans eat more than we used to, and more than we need to maintain a lean state, despite negative consequences?  This presentation will touch on the neurobiology of action selection, the neurobiology of energy homeostasis, and why our central nervous system hardware may not be up to the task of constructively navigating the modern food environment.

The talk will be attended by medical students, but I also hope to have some doctors and researchers show up, as well as people from the broader Charlottesville community.  It will be a thought-provoking talk regardless of your background, and it will touch on some of my own work.

The talk will be held in the main medical school auditorium, MEB 3110, on Friday, January 17 at noon.  You can find driving directions and parking information by following this link.  You'll probably have to park in a parking garage, either the Lee Street or Central Grounds garage (directions in the link).

For a map of the UVA health system, follow this link.  The Medical Education Building is number 44 on the map, and the talk will be in room MEB 3110 on the 3rd floor of the building.

See you there!

Changes in the Blog Format: Healing in Progress

A Sign on the Trail by Melina Meza

Sorry I changed the format of the blog so suddenly! It was actually a mistake on my part—I got a bit overly enthusiastic on Friday afternoon. I will be working on fixing the blog all weekend. But I realize that some of you may be confused.

To read the rest of this (or any article), simply click anywhere on the portion of the article that is displayed on the home page. You can still search the blog and you can still subscribe, but it may not be so easy to figure out. So here's a little help.

SEARCHING: To search with a text string, use the search box at the very top of the page. To search the archives, hover your mouse over the thin black rectangle at the upper right of the page (the dock) until you see the file cabinets. Click on the file cabinets to display the archives. To view the index (list of labels), however you mouse over the thin black rectangle at the upper right of the page until you see the tag symbol. Click on the tag symbol to see the index. For detailed information on searching, click the How to Search tab at the top of our home page.

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In the meantime, if you have trouble subscribing and want help, use the Contact Us at the top of the page to email me and I'll sign you up. After I sign you up, I'll send you a message telling you how to confirm your subscription (the confirmation process is one that I can't turn off). 

—Nina