Brain and Obesity

Neuroscience of Cognition and Reward Implications for Obesity: The Psychological Perspective

Michael Vallis, PhD, R. Psych
Associate Professor, Family Medicine, Dalhousie University
Health Behaviour Change Consultant
Halifax, NS

Dr. Vallis is a registered health psychologist based in Halifax, Canada. He is a Health Behaviour Change Consultant and Associate Professor in Family Medicine at Dalhousie University. He obtained his Ph.D. and M.A from the University of Western Ontario, London, and his B. Sc. From Dalhousie University. His main area of expertise is adult health psychology, with an emphasis on obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular risk and gastroenterology. He has worked in the public health system for 35 years, where he developed the Behaviour Change Institute, and is now working as a consultant and doing private practice. 

Dr. Vallis spends most of his time training healthcare providers in behaviour change for chronic disease management. He regularly supervises clinical and academic students at Dalhousie and is active in research on motivation, behavioural change and adaptation to chronic disease.  He consults nationally as well as internationally and is heavily involved in academic publications, journal editing, and clinical practice guidelines. He is on the executive of the Canadian Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Obesity (in preparation) and is an author of the Behavioural Chapter for these new guidelines as well as the 2006 guidelines.  As well, he is an author of the Psychology and Mental Health chapter of Diabetes Canada’s Clinical Practice Guidelines (2018, 2013, 2004). He was recently awarded a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Government of Canada on the recommendation of the Canadian Diabetes Association.

Presentation Overview:

This session will address the complex relationship between cognitive dysfunction and obesity. Cognitive dysfunction will be understood as involving structural (brain function) components as well as functional (perceived impulses, attitudes, beliefs) components. The link between obesity and cognitive dysfunction will be described from the perspective of risk factors for developing obesity as well as deficits associated with obesity. Finally, potential interventions, informed my cognitive dysfunction, will be described.

At the end of this presentation, participants should be able to:

• Describe the nature of cognitive processes that contribute to the development of obesity
• Describe the cognitive structures that impair behavioural control in an obesogenic environment
• Describe the cognitive structures negatively impacted by obesity