News

Animals, from flies to humans, use olfaction to find resources, such as food and mates. How do such different creatures, with such different brains, all share this ability?

Dr. Justus Verhagen, an Associate Fellow at The John B. Pierce Laboratory, along with a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, University of California-Berkeley, Weill Cornell Medical College, the University of Pittsburgh, and New York University Medical Center are working to uncover the algorithmic and mechanistic processes governing this deeply embedded behavior.… Read More >

Pierce and Yale Scientists discuss Neurogastronomy with the “New Republic”

Read the article here:  https://newrepublic.com/article/128899/man-will-transform-eat… Read More >

What’s that smell? Figuring out how animals navigate with their noses.

Justus Verhagen, PhD, an Associate Fellow at The John B. Pierce Laboratory, is one of 17 researchers nationwide working as part of the White House BRAIN Initiative under a grant  from the National Science Foundation to study how the brain processes and identifies odors.… Read More >

Compromised dopamine signaling is associated with impulsive behaviors in obesity and alcoholism

Compromised dopamine signaling is associated with impulsive behaviors in obesity and alcoholism and administration of fatty acid amide oleoylethanolamide (OEA) has been shown to rescue dopamine signaling in rodents. Dr. Dana Small and her colleagues tested whether three-week supplementation with a dietary supplement that contains the precursor of the fatty acid amide OEA is able to reduce alcohol intake and impulsive behaviors in people that regularly drink alcohol.… Read More >

Dr. Dana Small receives two honors

Dana Small, PhD, Deputy Director for Research at The John B. Pierce Laboratory, and Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, is the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB) annual recipient of the Alan N.… Read More >

Heightened ability to imagine odors linked to higher body weight

Researchers at The John B. Pierce Laboratory and the Yale School of Medicine have revealed that the ability to vividly imagine the smell of popcorn, freshly baked cookies and even non-food odors is greater in obese adults.… Read More >

Can robots be taught to smell?

By Ed Stannard, New Haven Register Posted: 10/29/15, 1:19 PM EDT NEW HAVEN >> Understanding the sense of smell could help in building robots to do things we rely on animals to do today, such as locating people under the rubble of an earthquake, locating illegal drugs or finding a bomb.… Read More >

Olfactory navigation: Dynamic computing in the natural environment

Dr. Verhagen awarded NSF grant to study olfaction Justus V. Verhagen, associate fellow at the John B. Pierce Laboratory, and Yale neurobiologist, is one of 17 researchers nationwide to receive grants totaling $15 million from the National Science Foundation to study how the brain processes and identifies odors.… Read More >