Effects of hunger and calorie content on visual awareness of food stimuli
Calorie content and hunger are two fundamental cues acting upon the processing of visually presented food items. However, whether and to which extent they affect visual awareness is still an open question. Here, high- and low-calorie food images administered to hungry or satiated participants were c...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2024-04-01
|
| Series: | Acta Psychologica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691824000696 |
| _version_ | 1827315557757616128 |
|---|---|
| author | Tommaso Ciorli Myrto Dimakopoulou Leonardo Trombetti Federica Gini Lorenzo Pia |
| author_facet | Tommaso Ciorli Myrto Dimakopoulou Leonardo Trombetti Federica Gini Lorenzo Pia |
| author_sort | Tommaso Ciorli |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Calorie content and hunger are two fundamental cues acting upon the processing of visually presented food items. However, whether and to which extent they affect visual awareness is still an open question. Here, high- and low-calorie food images administered to hungry or satiated participants were confronted in a breaking-Continuous Flash Suppression paradigm (Experiment 1), measuring the time required to access to visual awareness, and in a Binocular Rivalry paradigm (Experiment 2), quantifying the dominance time in visual awareness. Experiment 1 showed that high-calorie food accessed faster visual awareness, but mostly in satiated participants. Experiment 2 indicated that high-calorie food dominated longer visual awareness, regardless the degree of hunger. We argued that the unconscious advantage (Experiment 1) would represent a default state of the visual system towards highest-energy nutrients, yet the advantage is lost in hunger so to be tuned towards an increased need for any nutritional category. On the other hand, the conscious advantage of high-calorie food (Experiment 2) would represent a conscious perceptual and attentional bias towards highest energy-dense food useful for the actual detection of these stimuli in the environment. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T22:58:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9b2e62d65926461e86509b9e223a46de |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0001-6918 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T22:58:19Z |
| publishDate | 2024-04-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Acta Psychologica |
| spelling | doaj.art-9b2e62d65926461e86509b9e223a46de2024-03-18T04:33:47ZengElsevierActa Psychologica0001-69182024-04-01244104192Effects of hunger and calorie content on visual awareness of food stimuliTommaso Ciorli0Myrto Dimakopoulou1Leonardo Trombetti2Federica Gini3Lorenzo Pia4SAMBA (SpAtial, Motor and Bodily Awareness) Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, ItalySAMBA (SpAtial, Motor and Bodily Awareness) Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, ItalySAMBA (SpAtial, Motor and Bodily Awareness) Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, ItalyUniversity of Trento, ItalySAMBA (SpAtial, Motor and Bodily Awareness) Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy; NIT (Neuroscience Institute of Turin), Turin, Italy; Corresponding author at: Psychology Department, Via Verdi 10, 10123 Turin, IT, Italy.Calorie content and hunger are two fundamental cues acting upon the processing of visually presented food items. However, whether and to which extent they affect visual awareness is still an open question. Here, high- and low-calorie food images administered to hungry or satiated participants were confronted in a breaking-Continuous Flash Suppression paradigm (Experiment 1), measuring the time required to access to visual awareness, and in a Binocular Rivalry paradigm (Experiment 2), quantifying the dominance time in visual awareness. Experiment 1 showed that high-calorie food accessed faster visual awareness, but mostly in satiated participants. Experiment 2 indicated that high-calorie food dominated longer visual awareness, regardless the degree of hunger. We argued that the unconscious advantage (Experiment 1) would represent a default state of the visual system towards highest-energy nutrients, yet the advantage is lost in hunger so to be tuned towards an increased need for any nutritional category. On the other hand, the conscious advantage of high-calorie food (Experiment 2) would represent a conscious perceptual and attentional bias towards highest energy-dense food useful for the actual detection of these stimuli in the environment.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691824000696FoodVisual awarenessHungerCalorieBinocular rivalryBreaking continuous flash suppression |
| spellingShingle | Tommaso Ciorli Myrto Dimakopoulou Leonardo Trombetti Federica Gini Lorenzo Pia Effects of hunger and calorie content on visual awareness of food stimuli Acta Psychologica Food Visual awareness Hunger Calorie Binocular rivalry Breaking continuous flash suppression |
| title | Effects of hunger and calorie content on visual awareness of food stimuli |
| title_full | Effects of hunger and calorie content on visual awareness of food stimuli |
| title_fullStr | Effects of hunger and calorie content on visual awareness of food stimuli |
| title_full_unstemmed | Effects of hunger and calorie content on visual awareness of food stimuli |
| title_short | Effects of hunger and calorie content on visual awareness of food stimuli |
| title_sort | effects of hunger and calorie content on visual awareness of food stimuli |
| topic | Food Visual awareness Hunger Calorie Binocular rivalry Breaking continuous flash suppression |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691824000696 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT tommasociorli effectsofhungerandcaloriecontentonvisualawarenessoffoodstimuli AT myrtodimakopoulou effectsofhungerandcaloriecontentonvisualawarenessoffoodstimuli AT leonardotrombetti effectsofhungerandcaloriecontentonvisualawarenessoffoodstimuli AT federicagini effectsofhungerandcaloriecontentonvisualawarenessoffoodstimuli AT lorenzopia effectsofhungerandcaloriecontentonvisualawarenessoffoodstimuli |