Dr Leigh Gibson

Job Title: Reader Qualifications: BSc, PhD, C Psychol, R Nutr Telephone: +44 (0)20 8392 3744 Email Address: L.Gibson@roehampton.ac.uk

Biography

Leigh Gibson read Psychology and Physiology at the University of London, and then completed a PhD and post-doctoral fellowship at the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, studying mechanisms by which nutrients in food influence food choice and appetite. In 1989, Leigh joined the Institute of Neurology in London, to work on the neurochemistry of appetite, anxiety and stress. In 1993, he joined the Health Behaviour Unit at the Institute of Psychiatry, and then moved with the HBU to the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, UCL, in 1996, where, as Senior Research Fellow, he studied food choice, appetite, and their interactions with stress and health. In 2004, Leigh joined the School of Human and Life Sciences, Roehampton University. Leigh is currently a Reader in Biopsychology, and a member of the Clinical and Health Psychology Research Centre within this School. He also retains an honorary Senior Research Fellowship at UCL.

Research Interests

Leigh Gibson's current research is concerned with influences on appetite and food choice, and their interaction with stress, health, and cognitive and emotional well-being. The work is aimed at understanding processes controlling people's habitual diet, attempts at dietary change, weight control and disordered eating. His work derives mainly from psychological and physiological mechanisms underlying dietary habit formation, especially the role of learning, but also including influences of nutrition and stress on brain/behaviour and cardiovascular adaptations protecting health.

Teaching

Leigh contributes lectures to a broad range of modules across the School, including those for Nutrition, Health and Sports Science undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, as well as in Psychology. He currently convenes several psychological modules including "Experiencing Psychological Research", "Mind, Body and Brain" (1st and 2nd years) and an MSc module, "Experimental Design, Data Collection and Analysis".

Selected Recent Publications

Dovey, T. M., Staples, P. A., Gibson, E. L. & Halford, J. C. G. (2008). Food neophobia and ‘picky/fussy’ eating in children: a review. Appetite, 50, 181-193.

Brown, K.A., Ogden, J., Vögele, C. & Gibson,, E.L. (2008). The role of parental control practices in explaining children’s diet and BMI. Appetite, 50, 252-259.

Gibson, E. L. & Brunstrom, J. M. (2007) Learned influences on appetite and food intake: Evidence in human beings. In S. J. Cooper & T. C. Kirkham (Eds.) Appetite and Body Weight: Integrative Systems and the Development of Anti-Obesity Drugs, pp. 271-300. Academic Press, Elsevier: London.

Steptoe, A., Gibson, E. L., Vuononvirta, R., Williams, E. D., Hamer, M., Rycroft, J. A., Erusalimsky, J. D. & Wardle, J. (2007). The effects of tea on psychophysiological stress responsivity and post-stress recovery: a randomised double-blind trial. Psychopharmacology, 190, 81-89.

Gibson, E. L. (2007) Carbohydrates and mental function: feeding or impeding the brain? Nutrition Bulletin, 32 Suppl., 71-83.

Hamer, M., Williams, E. D., Vuononvirta, R., Gibson, E. L. & Steptoe, A. (2006) Association between coffee consumption and markers of inflammation and cardiovascular function during mental stress. Journal of Hypertension, 24, 2191-2197.

Gibson, E. L. (2006). Emotional influences on food choice: sensory, physiological and psychological pathways. Physiology and Behavior, 89, 53-61.

Hamer, M., Williams, E., Vuononvirta, R., Giacobazzi, P., Gibson, E. L & Steptoe, A. (2006) The effects of effort-reward imbalance on inflammatory and cardiovascular responses to mental stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 68, 408-413.

Gibson, E. L. (2006). Mood, emotions and food choice. In R. Shepherd & M. Raats, Psychology of food choice, pp. 113-140. Nutrition Society Frontiers in Nutritional Science series, CAB International: Wallingford.

Gibson, E. L. & Green, M. W. (2005). Effects of diet on behaviour. In B. Caballero, L. Allen & A. Prentice (Eds) Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition, 2nd Ed, pp. 183-195. Elsevier Science: Oxford.

Cooke, L., Wardle, J., Gibson, E. L., Sapochnik, M., Sheiham, A. & Lawson, M. (2004). Demographic, familial and trait predictors of fruit and vegetable consumption by preschool children. Public Health Nutrition, 7, 295-302.

Gibson, E. L. (2004). An appraisal of the FSA’s ‘Review of Promotion of Food to Children’. Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 124, 62-63.

Wardle, J., Cooke, L., Gibson, E. L., Sapochnik, M., Sheiham, A. & Lawson, M. (2003). Increasing children's acceptance of vegetables: a randomized trial of parent-led exposure. Appetite, 40, 155-162.

Gibson, E.L. & Wardle, J. (2003). Energy density predicts preferences for fruit and vegetables in four-year-old children. Appetite, 41, 97-98.

Wardle, J., Herrera, M-L., Cooke, L. & Gibson, E. L. (2003). Modifying children's food preferences: the effects of exposure and reward on acceptance of an unfamiliar vegetable. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 57, 341-348.

Gibson, E. L. & Green, M. W. (2002). Nutritional influences on cognitive function: mechanisms of susceptibility. Nutrition Research Reviews, 15, 169-206.

Wardle, J. & Gibson, E.L. (2002). Impact of stress on diet: processes and implications. In S. Stansfeld & M. G. Marmot (Eds), Stress and the heart: psychosocial pathways to coronary heart disease, pp. 124-149. BMJ Books: London.

Gibson EL (2001). Learning in the development of food cravings. In M. M. Hetherington (Ed), Food cravings and addiction, pp.193-234. Leatherhead Publishing: Leatherhead.

Gibson, E. L. and Wardle, J. (2001). Effect of contingent hunger state on development of appetite for a novel fruit snack. Appetite, 37, 97-101.

Oliver, G., Wardle, J. & Gibson, E. L. (2000). Stress and food choice: a laboratory study. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62, 853-865.