Food has the right of way: Evidence for prioritised processing of visual food stimuli irrespective of eating style

Fasting reduces inhibitory and attentional control of food-related cues

“…It could seem obvious that caloric food becomes a more salient stimulus under food deprivation conditions, as a short amount of food, but with a high caloric content, would be enough to return to the metabolic homeostasis and, consequently, to reduce the motivational drive to eat. Using different cognitive tasks, previous research has shown an attentional bias for food over non-food objects (Ballestero-Arnau, Moreno-Sánchez, & Cunillera, 2021;Kirsten, Seib-Pfeifer, Koppehele-Gossel, & Gibbons, 2019;Neimeijer, de Jong, & Roefs, 2013). More interesting for the purpose of the current study, several reports have proved the existence of a larger attentional bias for high-calorie food than for low-calorie food items (Cunningham & Egeth, 2018;Lee & Lee, 2021;Van Dillen, Papies, & Hofmann, 2013), whereas in other studies, an attentional bias for high-caloric items has been reported exclusively in a population with obesity (Bongers et al, 2015;Werthmann et al, 2011).…”

The Absence of Attentional Bias to Low-Calorie Food Stimuli in Restrictive Dieters: Differences in the Allocation of Attentional Resources to High-Calorie Foods

“…Previous studies on food attention bias in restrictive dieters have explored it in the spatial/temporal dimension using different paradigms and methods [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Restrictive dieters’ attentional bias toward food is influenced by the caloric content of the food, and high-calorie foods, in particular, can capture their attention more quickly [ 9 , 12 , 13 ].…”

“…Previous studies on food attention bias in restrictive dieters have explored it in the spatial/temporal dimension using different paradigms and methods [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Restrictive dieters’ attentional bias toward food is influenced by the caloric content of the food, and high-calorie foods, in particular, can capture their attention more quickly [ 9 , 12 , 13 ]. This may explain why restrictive dieters sometimes cannot control the desire to eat after a period of strict dieting, thus encouraging binge eating behaviors.…”

“…In the temporal dimension, individuals’ attention is often measured using the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) task [ 15 , 16 , 17 ]. The basic component of the RSVP paradigm is the presentation of a rapidly flashing stream of 10–19 stimuli (e.g., 118 ms/stimulus) on a screen [ 3 , 9 ], with no interstimulus interval between stimuli, in which 1 or 2 stimuli may be the target stimulus, and the lag (time) between the 2 target stimuli can be controlled. Numerous studies have demonstrated that when the 2nd target stimulus (Target 2, T2) appears within 500 ms after the appearance of the first target stimulus (Target 1, T1), individuals often do not observe T2, a phenomenon known as attentional blink (AB).…”

“…One study revealed that when food was presented as T1, the attentional blink effect was enhanced in restrictive dieters, leading to a reduction in the recognition of nonfood stimuli as T2. In addition, when food stimuli were presented as T2, recognition of previous nonfood T1 targets was impaired [ 9 ]. In another study, a reduction in the recognition of neutral targets was found when food, as a distractor, was presented before a nonfood target, which was not found in unrestrictive dieters.…”