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Dana Small, PhD

Professor Adjunct of Psychiatry
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Additional Titles

Director, Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center

Contact Info

Small Lab

Modern Diet and Physiology Research Lab, 1 Church Street

New Haven, CT 06510

United States

About

Titles

Professor Adjunct of Psychiatry

Director, Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center

Biography

I am a psychologist and neuroscientist with graduate degrees in Neuroscience and Clinical Psychology from McGill University. My research focuses on understanding how sensory, metabolic and neural signals are integrated to determine food choices and on how the dysregulation of these systems contribute to the development of obesity, diabetes and cognitive impairment. My group primarily uses neuroimaging, neuropsychological and metabolic methodologies in humans; however, we also have collaborations with a number of basic research labs at Yale and abroad where we use a revere translational approach to pursue mechanistic questions in rodent models that arise from findings in humans. My laboratory generally consists of 1-2 phd students; 3-4 post-docs; a research associate professor and a handful of international interns and Yale undergraduates. I have trained 5 PhD students, 12 post-doctoral fellows and over 40 undergraduates and medical students. The lab has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 2003.

In addition to my activities at Yale, I am also involved in a number of initiatives related to advancing knowledge and treatment of diabetes and obesity. I am co-leading a National Institutes of Health workgroup developing a neuropsychological battery for use in obesity and diabetes trials and chairing the annual meeting for the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior. I am executive editor at Appetite and Biological Psychiatry and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Behavior, Cognitive and Sensory Sciences.

Appointments

Education & Training

PhD
McGill University (2001)
MSc
McGill University (1998)

Research

Overview

  • The role of central insulin sensitivity on cognition in prediabetes
  • Central coding of taste and flavor.
  • Physiological mechanisms underlying food choice and ingestive behavior
  • The impact of diet, adiposity and metabolic dysfunction on brain structure and function, including mood, cognition and addiction.
  • Targeting the gut-brain axis for weight-loss maintenance
  • Determining the role of the gut-brain axis in alcohol dependence
  • Understanding the mechanisms underlying dopamine adaptations in response to diet, adiposity and metabolic dysfunction.

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Dopamine; Energy Metabolism; Food Addiction; Motivation; Neuroimaging; Neurophysiology; Obesity; Psychiatry and Psychology; Psychophysics; Stress, Psychological

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Dana Small's published research.

Publications

2024

2022

2021

Clinical Trials

Current Trials

Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

  • activity

    Frontiers in Neuroscience

  • activity

    The Association for Chemoreception Sciences

  • activity

    European Journal of Neuroscience

  • activity

    Chemosensory Perception

  • activity

    The Obesity Society

Get In Touch

Contacts

Mailing Address

Small Lab

Modern Diet and Physiology Research Lab, 1 Church Street

New Haven, CT 06510

United States