Potthoff J, Schienle A. Sadness-associated eating styles and visual food cue reactivity: An eye-tracking investigation.
Eat Behav 2022;
45:101604. [PMID:
35231797 DOI:
10.1016/j.eatbeh.2022.101604]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2021] [Revised: 02/10/2022] [Accepted: 02/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Emotional eating has been associated with biases of attention and memory for visual food cues. This eye-tracking study investigated whether the tendency to overeat in response to sadness is associated with the inspection and recall of visual food cues.
METHOD
Participants (n = 115, mean age = 26 years, 70 females, 45 males) viewed images depicting food and non-food. We compared gaze duration, 'hyperscanning' parameters (fixation duration, saccadic angle, scan path length), and recall performance between different image categories (high-calorie, low-calorie food, non-food) and groups with different sadness-associated eating styles (increased, decreased, unchanged food consumption during states of sadness).
RESULTS
The group with sadness-related overeating reported a higher body mass index than the other groups, but neither displayed a visual attention bias nor memory bias for food cues. We observed a prolonged gaze duration for low-calorie food cues, which were rated as more appetizing than high-calorie cues. All participants recalled more food cues (low- and high-calorie) than non-food cues independent of gaze duration.
CONCLUSION
This study expanded previous research designs by groups that decrease vs. increase the amount eaten when feeling sad, and food/non-food images that were carefully matched for visual properties. Based on this approach, we were not able to show that self-disclosed sadness eating is associated with visual/memory biases for food images.
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