Micah
Micah Leshem, Professor Emeritus
Department of Psychology, University of Haifa https://psy.hevra.haifa.ac.il/index.php/staff/emeritus
Research, past & present
Psychobiology of mineral appetites, ingestive behavior, transgenerational Influence.
Academic History
1976 Ph.D., Psychology, Leeds University, with John E Blundell
1977-to date Department of Psychology, University of Haifa.
2012 - Emeritus, School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Haifa.
Visiting Professor
Biology & Mahoney Institute Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Neurobiology, NSERM Nancy, Sciences du Sports, Universite de Nice Sophia Antipolis.
International Colleagues and collaborators, past & present
Jay Schulkin, Everywhere, Alan Epstein & Eliot Stellar, Penn, Maurizio Massi, Camerino, Laurival de Luca, Araraquera, Martin Yeomans, Bristol, Simon Thornton, Nancy, Katharina Anna Braun & Joerge Bock, Magdeburg, Anat Scher, Education, Haifa, Einat Kodesh, Physiotherapy, University of Haifa, Yuval Heled & Yoram Epstein,Tel Aviv University.
Select Professional Affiliations, past & present
International Society Developmental Psychobiology, Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, Israel Society for Neuroscience, International Conference on Physiology of Food and Fluid Intake, International Association for the Psychology of Food and Nutrition, National Board for Animal Experiments, Chair – University of Haifa IRB, Chair – University of Haifa Animal IRB, Vice Chancellor’s Inter-University Forum on Animal Research, Board of the Arab-Jewish Center, University of Haifa, Consultant group to Knesset committee on protection of human experimental subjects. Retirees representative, Faculty Union.
Publications
See separate page
Favorite Papers
Micah Leshem, (2009). Biobehavior of the human love of salt. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 33, 1-17.
Micah Leshem, Amany Saadi, Nesreen Alem and Khadeja Hendi. (2008) Enhanced salt appetite, diet and drinking in traditional Bedouin women in the Negev. Appetite, 50: 71–82. Micah Leshem M, Dessie-Navon H (2018) Acculturation of immigrant diet, basic taste responses and sodium appetite. J Nutr Sci.Goldzak-Kunik, G., Friedman, R., Spitz, M., Sandler, L., & Micah Leshem (2012) Intact Sensory Function In Anorexia Nervosa. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 95:272-82.
Poor paper (no taste control)
M. Leshem, and Colleague (1997) Hemodialysis increases the preference for salt in soup. Physiology and Behavior, 61: 65-69.
ad hoc reviewer
Journals: American J Clinical Nutrition; American Journal of Hypertension; American Journal of Physiology; Appetite; Behavioral Brain Research; Behavioral Neuroscience; Brain Research; Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research; British Journal of Nutrition; Chemical Senses; Chemosensory Perception; Developmental Psychobiology; Experimental Biology and Medicine; Federation Proceedings; Hormones & Behavior; Food Quality & Preference; Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience; International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism; J Nutr Health & Aging; Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise; Naturwissenschaften; Neuroscience; Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews; Neuropsychopharmacology; Neuroscience Research; Nutrients; Peer J; Pflügers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology; Pharmacology, Biochemistry & Behavior; Physiology and Behavior; Pflügers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology; PLOS one.
Granting bodies: Israel Academy of Sciences; Israel Center for Psychobiology; Israel-USA Binational Science Foundation; Israel Foundation Trustees; Israel Science Foundation; German-Israel Foundation; Danone Research Foundation.
Selected Funding
Israel Academy of Sciences (8), Israel Center for Psychobiology (2), Israel-USA Binational Science Foundation (3), Israel Foundation Trustees, German-Israel Foundation, Edelstein Foundation, NIMH, Israel Ministry of Health (2), Rick Foundation, Sara Van Dam Project.
Graduate Students
Ilit Yehuda. Mouna Maroun, Sonia Del Canho, Tamar Levin, Nava Wald, Alexandra Kavushanski, Hadar Erez, David Hecht, Adi Shiratzki, Maya Yativ, Liron Brooks, Shirly Moshe, Khadeja Hendi, Adi Mizrahi (Almog), Hiba Zaidan, Noga David, Shelly Rakover, Avner Kochli, Alice Shachar-Dadon, Erika Toth, Edith Gershon, Galit Goldzak-Kunik, Zev Manevitz.
Lab
Sodium Appetite has 3/4th of a century of rigorous scientific research almost entirely in animals. It has elucidated the hormonal, neural, and behavioral determinants of Sodium Appetite – the extraordinary behavior that protects animals from hyponatremic demise. However, the spontaneous liking for salt of humans has been studied less. I am one of the handful of researchers doing so today, and probably the only one with a lab entirely dedicated to that research. This contrasts starkly with the enormous resources and investment in studying the consequences of that spontaneous avidity for salt.
I have had an active lab investigating salt appetite since the late 80’s when Alan Epstein, Eliot Stellar and I collaborated on the ontogeny of salt appetite between the University of Pennsylvania and Haifa. Later collaborations and on other past research, see above. My current research focuses on human salt appetite and transgenerational effects.
Our lab is currently closed.