scholarly journals Food-Related Attentional Bias in Individuals with Normal Weight and Overweight: A Study with a Flicker Task

Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 492
Author(s):  
Francesca Favieri ◽  
Giuseppe Forte ◽  
Andrea Marotta ◽  
Maria Casagrande

The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate attentional biases for food-related stimuli in individuals with overweight and normal weight using a flicker paradigm. Specifically, it was tested whether attention allocation processes differ between individuals with overweight and normal weight using transient changes of food-related and neutral pictures. Change detection latencies in objects of central interest (CI) or objects of marginal interest (MI) were measured as an index of attention allocation in a sample of fifty-three students with overweight/obesity and sixty students with normal weight during a flicker paradigm with neutral, hypercaloric and hypocaloric food pictures. Both groups of participants showed an attentional bias for food-related pictures as compared to neutral pictures. However, the bias was larger in individuals with overweight than in individuals with normal weight when changes were of marginal interest, suggesting a stronger avoidance of the food-related picture. This study showed that food-related stimuli influence attention allocation processes in both participants with overweight and normal weight. In particular, as compared to individuals with normal weight, those with overweight seem to be characterised by a stronger attentional avoidance of (or smaller attention maintenance on) food-related stimuli that could be considered as a voluntary strategy to resist food consumption.

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 812-822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenny A Karyadi ◽  
Melissa A Cyders

This study examined whether alcohol odors, in isolation or when combined with pictures, would influence food attentional biases and cravings. Participants’ cravings and attentional biases to food and alcohol pictures were assessed after exposure to alcohol or water odors ( n = 77; mean age = 30.84 years, 51.9% female, 83.1% Caucasian). Food attentional biases were increased by alcohol odors, but food cravings were increased only by a combination of alcohol odors and food pictures. These effects were related with self-reported problematic food consumption. These findings support a research program for further examining the effect of alcohol cues on problematic food consumption.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Rogers ◽  
Edel Murphy ◽  
Sarah Jane Winders ◽  
Ciara Greene

Attentional biases have been identified as a transdiagnostic cognitive process that may underlie a range of psychological disorders. They comprise three measurable and observable components; facilitation (rapid detection of concern-related stimuli), difficulty in disengagement (slower attentional shifting away from concern-related stimuli) and attentional avoidance (allocation of attention away from concern-related stimuli). Attentional biases to negative stimuli are common in anxiety and depression; however, their shared (i.e. transdiagnostic) and distinct components have not yet been systematically investigated. Literature searches were conducted on the PsychINFO, Embase, PubMed and Web of Science databases, yielding 560 articles after duplicates were removed. Articles were subject to abstract and full-text screening against study eligibility criteria. Twenty-five articles were included in the extraction phase. Data regarding population, experimental paradigm and attentional bias components were extracted. Results are suggestive of facilitation as a transdiagnostic attentional process across anxiety, depression and those with co-occurring anxiety and depression. There was strong evidence of avoidance in depression, with weaker evidence in anxiety, while delayed disengagement was observed in anxiety, but not in depression. Critical gaps in the literature were also identified. These findings provide support for the transdisagnostic nature of attentional biases, shedding light on the commonalities observed across diagnostic categories.


Author(s):  
Mitchell R. P. LaPointe ◽  
Rachael Cullen ◽  
Bianca Baltaretu ◽  
Melissa Campos ◽  
Natalie Michalski ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Perone ◽  
David Vaughn Becker ◽  
Joshua M. Tybur

Multiple studies report that disgust-eliciting stimuli are perceived as salient and subsequently capture selective attention. In the current study, we aimed to better understand the nature of temporal attentional biases toward disgust-eliciting stimuli and to investigate the extent to which these biases are sensitive to contextual and trait-level pathogen avoidance motives. Participants (N=116) performed in an Emotional Attentional Blink (EAB) task in which task-irrelevant disgust-eliciting, fear-eliciting, or neutral images preceded a target by 200, 500, or 800 milliseconds (i.e., lag two, five and eight respectively). They did so twice - once while not exposed to an odor, and once while exposed to either an odor that elicited disgust or an odor that did not - and completed a measure of disgust sensitivity. Results indicate that disgust-eliciting visual stimuli produced a greater attentional blink than neutral visual stimuli at lag two and a greater attentional blink than fear-eliciting visual stimuli at both lag two and at lag five. Neither the odor manipulations nor individual differences measures moderated this effect. We propose that visual attention is engaged for a longer period of time following disgust-eliciting stimuli because covert processes automatically initiate the evaluation of pathogen threats. The fact that state and trait pathogen avoidance do not influence this temporal attentional bias suggests that early attentional processing of pathogen cues is initiated independent from the context in which such cues are perceived.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Di Giorgio ◽  
Marco Lunghi ◽  
Giorgio Vallortigara ◽  
Francesca Simion

AbstractThe human visual system can discriminate between animate beings vs. inanimate objects on the basis of some kinematic cues, such as starting from rest and speed changes by self-propulsion. The ontogenetic origin of such capability is still under debate. Here we investigate for the first time whether newborns manifest an attentional bias toward objects that abruptly change their speed along a trajectory as contrasted with objects that move at a constant speed. To this end, we systematically manipulated the motion speed of two objects. An object that moves with a constant speed was contrasted with an object that suddenly increases (Experiment 1) or with one that suddenly decreases its speed (Experiment 2). When presented with a single speed change, newborns did not show any visual preference. However, newborns preferred an object that abruptly increases and then decreases its speed (Experiment 3), but they did not show any visual preference for the reverse sequence pattern (Experiment 4). Overall, results are discussed in line with the hypothesis of the existence of attentional biases in newborns that trigger their attention towards some visual cues of motion that characterized animate perception in adults.


1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Raben ◽  
ANNA TAGLIABUE ◽  
Arne Astrup

Although subjective appetite scores are widely used, studies on the reproducibility of this method are scarce. In the present study nine healthy, normal weight, young men recorded their subjective appetite sensations before and during 5 h after two different test meals A and B. The subjects tested each meal twice and in randomized order. Visual analogue scale (VAS) scores, 10 cm in length, were used to assess hunger, satiety, fullness, prospective food consumption and palatability of the meals. Plasma glucose and lactate concentrations were determined concomitantly. The repeatability was investigated for fasting values, Δ-mean 5 h and mean 5 h values, Δ-peak/nadir and peak/nadir values. Although the profiles of the postprandial responses were similar, the coefficients of repeatability (CR = 2SD) on the mean differences were large, ranging from 2·86 to 5.24 cm for fasting scores, 1·36 to 1·88 cm for mean scores, 2·98 to 5·42 cm for Δ-mean scores, and 3·16 to 6·44 cm for peak and Δ-peak scores. For palatability ratings the CK values varied more, ranging from 2·38 (taste) to 8·70 cm (aftertaste). Part of the difference in satiety ratings could be explained by the differences in palatability ratings. However, the low reproducibility may also be caused by a conditioned satiation or hunger due to the subjects' prior experience of the meals and therefore not just be a reflection of random noise. It is likely, however, that the variation in appetite ratings is due both to methodological day-to-day variation and to biological day-to-day variation in subjective appetite sensations.


2011 ◽  
Vol 36 (10) ◽  
pp. 1334-1339 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Loeber ◽  
M Grosshans ◽  
O Korucuoglu ◽  
C Vollmert ◽  
S Vollstädt-Klein ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Heni Hendriyani ◽  
Enik Sulistyowati ◽  
Astidio Noviardhi

Background: It is a fact that natrium consumption relates to hypertension and the risk of heart disease and stroke. Even though it is common happened in later life, hypertension can be started in early age.Objective: The aim of the study is to identify salty food preference, high natrium food consumption, natrium intake, weight and its correlation with blood pressure among schoolchildren.Method: The study used cross-sectional design. There were 151 samples from junior high school chosen by purposive sampling. Food salty level data was assessed by eating the snack with three different salt concentration. High and low natrium source food and natrium intake data were taken using semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Blood pressure was measured by sphygmomanometer digital. Bivariate analysis was used Chi-square and Rank Spearman test.Results: The study revealed that 74,2% children prefer snack with the salt level above recommendation (> 0,5 gr salt per portion ). There were 22,5% children have natrium intake from food only ≥2000 mg (above recommendation). As much as 35,8% children fall into hypertension category based on their blood pressure (BP) level. There was a significant relationship between high natrium food consumption score with natrium intake (p=0,002). There were significant correlation between weight with systolic and diastolic BP ((p=0,000 r=-0,549 and p=0,000 r=-0,412). There were no correlation between atrium intake with systolic and diastolic BP (p=0,764;  r= 0,0025 and p=0,819 r=0,19).Conclusion: Healthy food and maintaining normal weight information and education must be done for children as early as possible.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Gladwin

BackgroundAlthough risky drinking and alcohol dependence have been associated with spatial attentional biases, concerns have been raised about the reliability of the frequently-used dot-probe task. A form of anticipatory bias related to predictive cues has been found to be related to alcohol-related processes, and to have high reliability in the context of threat stimuli. It remains to be determined whether this anticipatory attentional bias also has good reliability for alcohol stimuli. Further, correlations with drinking-related individual differences need to be replicated.Methods83 healthy adult participants were included, who completed the task and questionnaires on risky drinking (AUDIT-C), drinking motives (DMQ-R), reasons to abstain from drinking (RALD), and alcohol craving (ACQ). The task used a 400 ms Cue-Stimulus Interval, based on previous work. The Spearman-Brown split-half reliability of reaction time-based bias scores was calculated. The within-subject effect of probe location (predicted-alcohol versus predicted-non-alcohol) was tested using a paired-sample t-test. Correlations were calculated between bias scores and questionnaire scales; tests were one-sided for predicted effects and two-sided for exploratory effects.ResultsA good reliability of .81 was found. There was no overall bias. A predicted correlation between risky drinking and anticipatory bias towards alcohol was found, but no other predicted or exploratory effects.ConclusionsThe anticipatory attentional bias for alcohol is a reliably measurable individual difference, with some evidence that it is associated with risky drinking. Implicit measure of spatial attentional bias can achieve high reliability. Further study of attentional biases using predictive cues would appear to be promising.


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