Title
The impact of hunger on food cue processing: An event-related brain potential study.
Abstract
The present study used event-related brain potentials to examine deprivation effects on visual attention to food stimuli at the level of distinct processing stages. Thirty-two healthy volunteers (16 females) were tested twice 1 week apart, either after 24 h of food deprivation or after normal food intake. Participants viewed a continuous stream of food and flower images while dense sensor ERPs were recorded. As revealed by distinct ERP modulations in relatively earlier and later time windows, deprivation affected the processing of food and flower pictures. Between 300 and 360 ms, food pictures were associated with enlarged occipito-temporal negativity and centro-parietal positivity in deprived compared to satiated state. Of main interest, in a later time window (∼450–600 ms), deprivation increased amplitudes of the late positive potential elicited by food pictures. Conversely, flower processing varied by motivational state with decreased positive potentials in the deprived state. Minimum-Norm analyses provided further evidence that deprivation enhanced visual attention to food cues in later processing stages. From the perspective of motivated attention, hunger may induce a heightened state of attention for food stimuli in a processing stage related to stimulus recognition and focused attention.
Year
DOI
Venue
2009
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.04.071
NeuroImage
Keywords
Field
DocType
Attention,Deprivation,Eating,Motivation,ERP
Developmental psychology,Psychology,Cognitive psychology,Visual attention,Negativity effect,Stimulus (physiology)
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
47
4
1053-8119
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
6
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jessica Stockburger100.34
Ralf Schmälzle200.34
Tobias Flaisch3222.86
Florian Bublatzky430.74
Harald T Schupp5174.56