Virginia Tech researcher wins NIH award to study metabolic brain health

Mary Elizabeth Baugh, a research scientist with Virginia Tech's Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, has been awarded a National Institutes of Health Mentored Research Scientist Development Award to study how metabolic health influences the brain systems that shape what and how we eat.

Baugh earned her undergraduate and master's degrees in nutrition and exercise physiology. She then spent two years a registered dietitian at the Wake Forest Baptist Weight Management Center before returning to Virginia Tech to complete her doctoral degree in physiology and metabolism.

Obesity and its metabolic complications, including Type 2 diabetes, are a major public health challenge in the United States. Previous research has shown that obesity is associated with changes in brain structure and activity, but scientists want to better understand how those changes translate into everyday behaviors such as learning from food rewards and making choices about what to eat.

Pearl H. Chiu, professor at the institute and co-sponsor of Baugh's project, focuses on computational psychiatry. She brings her expertise in modeling complex behaviors, computational modeling of human brain function during decision-making and successful mentorship of early career scientists.

Baugh's study combines behavioral experiments with neuroimaging and computational modeling to better understand how metabolic signals from the body affect brain circuits engaged in everyday learning and eating behavior.

Source:

Virginia Tech