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Mei PengAssociate Professor


Ph.D. (Auckland), M.A Hons (Auckland), BA (Auckland) Honorary Lecturer, School of Psychology (University of Auckland)


Contact

Mob: +64 21 2471514
Email: mei.peng@otago.ac.nz
Location: Archway West 224

About

Associate Professor Mei Peng specialises in Sensory Science and Food Psychology. With a background in Experimental Psychology, Mei investigates how sensory perception, cognitive traits, and emotional factors shape eating behaviours and broader health outcomes. Her work draws on a multidisciplinary approach—combining behavioural science, psychophysics, and neuroimaging—to understand how individuals experience food, how preferences develop, and how these processes vary across people and life stages.

Mei leads the Sensory Neuroscience and Nutrition Laboratory, which specialises in large-scale, multi-method research projects supported by prestigious national and international funding, including three Marsden Fund grants. Her current Marsden-funded project (2022–2025) investigates how sensory shifts influence dietary patterns using advanced neuroimaging and cognitive assessments. She also leads and co-leads a few HRC-funded initiatives devising support for improving dietary quality for diverse populations, such as obesity, neurodevelopmental diverse, and ageing population.

In 2020, Mei established the ENERGY Longitudinal Study Cohort—Aotearoa New Zealand’s first pregravid longitudinal study—tracking behavioural, metabolic, and neural-sensory changes related to pregnancy.

Mei teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate levels and has contributed to the development of food psychology as an area of study, offering students a unique lens into how psychological and cultural factors influence food-related decisions. Her teaching is informed by her ongoing research and commitment to cross-disciplinary learning.

She is a founding member of the Australasian Sensory Professional Network, convenor of the NZ-Australian Sensory Symposium, and serves on the editorial board of Food Quality and Preference. Her work is deeply grounded in principles of equity, diversity, and Vision Mātauranga, and she actively supports culturally responsive research partnerships with Māori communities.

Teaching

Course Co‑ordinator

Contributor to

Research

Research interests

Mei’s research examines the cognitive, emotional, and sensory mechanisms underlying food perception and eating behaviour. She is particularly focused on how inter-individual and cross-cultural differences in sensory processing relate to broader health outcomes, including obesity, food neophobia, and depression.

Research themes include:

  • Sensory fingerprints and individual differences in multisensory integration
  • Mental imagery and its role in eating behaviour and food neophobia
  • Impact of pregnancy and hormonal changes on taste, smell, and dietary choices
  • Psychophysical modelling of flavour perception
  • Cultural and environmental influences on food perception in Aotearoa and beyond
  • AI-assisted diagnosis of sensory-related feeding disorders in neurodiverse children

Her research is supported by the Marsden Fund, the Health Research Council (HRC), CoRE funding, and the Fulbright Programme.


Postgraduate supervision

Current students

  • Stephanie McLeod (Marsden and Riddet supported PhD), “When Plant-based diets meet pregnancy – how maternal plant-based diets affect mothers and infants”
  • Elizabeth Tabe Agbor (Marsden and Riddet supported PhD), “The impact of gustation and olfaction on eating behaviours and dietary patterns from pre-pregnancy to the postpartum in low social-economics groups and refugees”
  • Yuqing Yan (Marsden-funded PhD), “Olfactory cocktail party: How human segregate mixture of odours”
  • Yunfan Mo (Riddet Institute PhD), “Sensory links to plant-based diets among women in reproductive age”
  • Nick Wong (Otago Scholarship), “Building emotional profile and link them to neuropathology”
  • Aiting Goh (Riddet Institute PhD), “Parental feeding practice and decision making of plant-based novel foods”
  • Maggie Hames (Marsden supported PhD), “The role of mental imagery in eating behaviour”

Past PhD students

  • Hannah Browne (PhD), “Long-term effect of pregnancy on sensory abilities and macronutrient selection”
  • Rachel Ginieis (PhD), “Multi-sensory fingerprints and their links to hedonic eating
  • Sashie Abeywickrema (PhD), “Linking individual olfactory and gustatory sensitivity to adiposity and eating behaviour”
  • Nassim Jalil Mozhdehi (PhD), “Comparing sensory perception and dietary intake across individuals with vegetarian, vegan, and omnivorous diets”
  • Xiaohai (Justin) Geng (PhD), "Developing and assessing implicit methods for food choices"

Publications

Peng, M., McCormack, J. C., Abeywickrema, S., Wang, Q. J., Roberts, R., & Spence, C. (2025). Craving what you imagine: How sensory mental imagery relates to trait food craving and BMI. Appetite, 210, 107990. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2025.107990 Journal - Research Article

Agbor Epse Muluh, E., McCormack, J. C., McLeod, S. C., Abeywickrema, S., Hooton, J., Garratt, M., Halberstadt, J., & Peng, M. (2025). Exploring comfort food cravings during pregnancy: A cross-sectional survey study. Appetite. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2025.107983 Journal - Research Article

Browne, H., Garratt, M., & Peng, M. (2025). Impacts of motherhood on energy intake and macronutrient choice: A comparative study. Food Quality & Preference, 125, 105370. doi: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2024.105370 Journal - Research Article

Yang, C., Leong, S. Y., King, J., Kim, E. H.-J., Morgenstern, M. P., Peng, M., Agyei, D., … Oey, I. (2024). Texture evaluation and in vivo oral tactile perceptions of cooked wheat pasta sheets partially substituted with pea protein. Foods, 13(23), 3798. doi: 10.3390/foods13233798 Journal - Research Article

Ni, S., McCulloch, G. A., Kroos, G. C., King, T. M., Dutoit, L., Foster, B. J., Hema, K., Jandt, J. M., Peng, M., Dearden, P. K., & Waters, J. M. (2024). Human-driven evolution of color in a stonefly mimic. Science, 386(6270), 453-458. doi: 10.1126/science.ado5331 Journal - Research Article

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