Neuroscience’s Matt Howe seeks to better understand how ingredients interact with people's dopamine system
![Matt Howe](/content/neuroscience_vt_edu/en/latest-news/matt-howe-dopamine/_jcr_content/article-image.transform/m-medium/image.jpg)
People who have difficulty controlling their food intake tend to overeat certain kinds of foods, such as doughnuts or chocolate, which can lead to obesity and other health-related issues. Their choices, despite popular generalization, might not actually be based on the way certain foods taste or how many calories they contain, according to a Virginia Tech researcher.
“Instead, we think problematic eating is related to the combination of ingredients in food and how they affect dopamine release, similar to the way that a drug’s abuse potential is directly related to its effect on dopamine release,” said Matt Howe, an assistant professor in the School of Neuroscience, part of the Virginia Tech College of Science.