In a paper published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, a group of four researchers describe this phenomenon as "vicarious goal satiation".
Just talking about progress towards goals might be enough to trigger vicarious goal satiation, she says, allowing everyone to leave the meeting with a warm glow and a subsequent lack of ambition.
Moreover, if umami does signal satiation, then it might be a useful tool for dieticians.Some people think kokumi might be deployed similarly, in order to reduce fat intake.
This hormone is already known to act in the pancreas and the brain, where it helps, respectively, to regulate blood-sugar levels and the feeling of satiation that tells you when to stop eating.
When that happens they all simultaneously mature, emerge, mate, lay eggs if female, and then die.Most biologists believe that the odd lifestyle of periodical cicadas is an example of a survival strategy called "predator satiation": the insects emerge in such prodigious quantities that predators cannot possibly eat them all.
The studies, one on mice and one on people, have identified two hormones that seem to fine-tune the perception of sweetness, and thus regulate the intake of sugar independently of the previously known mechanism of satiation that is located in the brain.The mouse study was done by Steven Munger, a neurobiologist at the University of Maryland, and his colleagues.
China's appetite for meat may be nearing satiation, but other countries are following behind: in developing countries as a whole, consumption of cereals has been flat since 1980, but demand for meat has doubled.Not surprisingly, farmers are switching, too: they now feed about 200m-250m more tonnes of grain to their animals than they did 20 years ago.
Evolutionary biologists call this a strategy of "predator satiation": without natural defences, the cicada in its billions allows every other bug, bird, chipmunk and pet dog in sight to gorge itself silly.
Thus, it is held that one effect of satiation is to increase the apparent distance between the borders of a figure that straddles a satiated region.
For example, domestic chickens that have eaten to satiation a particular source of food will start eating again if they observe other chickens feeding.
"It's rewarding beyond the calories and hunger satiation for everyone involved.
