Raio Lab
Principal Investigator: Candace M Raio
Institution: New York University (New York, NY)
Primary Subfield: Computational Biology
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Over a third of US adults have body mass indices (BMIs) in the “obesity” range, which are associated with significantly increased risks for medical and psychological comorbidities. There is a critical need to identify the decision-making mechanisms underlying eating behaviors that promote and exacerbate obesity. One such eating behavior is loss-of-control (LOC) eating, which is defined by a sense of being unable to stop eating or control what or how much one is eating. LOC eating predicts weight gain and independently increases the risk for a range of medical issues and psychosocial impairments, suggesting that it represents a behavioral phenotype of obesity with a particularly high burden of disease. To date, most studies have assumed that dysregulated food intake, and therefore, higher weight, is perpetuated by deficits in the ability to deploy self- control. However, recent theoretical and empirical work stemming from the cognitive and decision neuroscience literature suggests that failures to successfully deploy self-control depend more centrally on peoples’ estimates of how cognitively costly (i.e., difficult or effortful) the attempted use of control…
Active NIH Awards
- 1R01DK146063-01A1: Identifying Neural and Computational Underpinnings of Self-Control Costs in Obesity and Loss-of-Control Eating (2026)
- 5R01MH130532-04: Neural and affective mechanisms underlying prospective self-control costs (2026)
- 5R01MH130532-03: Neural and affective mechanisms underlying prospective self-control costs (2025)
- 5R01MH130532-02: Neural and affective mechanisms underlying prospective self-control costs (2024)
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