Hugo Fleming

Oh cool! Thanks Vanessa, this is a really thoughtful piece, and the framing around immuno-metabolic depression is exactly the kind of context we were hoping the work would connect to. The longitudinal CGM point is something that would be really exciting to see as well!

Really pleased to see this commentary from @glassybrain.bsky.social on our paper. She situates our findings within the immunometabolic depression framework and points to some cool directions for future work, including longitudinal designs and measuring insulin resistance more directly. Take a look!

Thank you!

Finally, if you found this interesting, follow me @hugofleming.bsky.social for more like this, and please share this thread so others can see it!

bsky.app/profile/hugo...

For the full story, you can find the paper out now in Biological Psychology! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... Huge thanks to my brilliant co-authors: @annalisewhines.bsky.social Poppy Whelehan, @isabellau.bsky.social Katie Gallacher @saramehrhof.bsky.social and @camillanord.bsky.social

We discuss several possible explanations for this dissociation in the paper. Why does this matter? Because research into metabolic interoception in health and disease rests on understanding how metabolic expectations actually shape behaviour!

Our results surprised us: people liked the caloric drink significantly more, but showed no PIT effect – no invigoration of behaviour from the CS+. This was strange given previous studies have implicated dopamine signalling in metabolic learning!

53 participants drank two matched beverages daily for a week – one containing maltodextrin (calories), one without. Then they rated the drinks, and did the PIT task (a go/no-go with the flavoured drinks delivered by a mouthpiece). We verified people couldn’t consciously detect the maltodextrin.

So we investigated whether metabolic learning actually drives differences in *human behaviour*. To do this, we made use of a phenomenon called Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT), where a Pavlovian stimulus acquires incentive salience, biasing action.

For animals to be motivated by a particular food, they first have to learn that it’s rewarding (containing calories, or other nutrients). In animals, metabolic learning is assessed through behaviour, but in humans it's usually measured with self-report questions – leading to mixed results.

How does metabolic learning shape human behaviour? In our recent study www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti..., we found that it shapes flavour preferences but, surprisingly, not action. Thread 🧵

Fetching water is one thing, but it was when you had the servants bell installed in your office that I think it crossed a line

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Important/interesting-looking paper for those in computational psychiatry from Stefano Palminteri and colleagues psyarxiv.com/3u4gp/ #neuroscience #psychscisky

Very true, and feels like a lesson you have to keep learning at every stage. ‘The better you want to be, the better the opportunities you have to say no to’

On #depression & allostatic overload 👀

In a sample with more than 200,000 individuals, severe depression was associated with the incidence of 29 conditions requiring hospital treatment (5-year follow-up): sleep disorders (HR, 5.97), diabetes (HR 5.15), ischemic heart disease (HR, 1.76), & others

University students more at risk of depression than non-students – study Higher levels of poor mental health in England could be linked to worries about money and academic achievement, findings suggest

New UCL study showing higher rates of MH symptoms in uni students vs non-students

BUT - as the authors make clear in the study but the Guardian article doesn't ...

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

General career Q: what are the key skills one should learn at each level in academia? Or to put it another way, what are the skill bottlenecks you need to resolve to continue to progress?