Taste at first (person) sight: Visual perspective modulates brain activity implicitly associated with viewing unhealthy but not healthy foods

Abstract

Every day, people are exposed to images of appetizing foods that can lead to high-calorie intake and contribute to overweight and obesity. Research has documented that manipulating the visual perspective from which eating is viewed helps resist temptation by altering the appraisal of unhealthy foods. However, the neural basis of this effect has not yet been examined using neuroimaging methods. Moreover, it is not known whether the benefits of this strategy can be observed when people, especially overweight, are not explicitly asked to imagine themselves eating. Last, it remains to be investigated if visual perspective could be used to promote healthy foods. The present work manipulated camera angles and tested whether visual perspective modulates activity in brain regions associated with taste and reward processing while participants watch videos featuring a hand grasping (unhealthy or healthy) foods from a plate during functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI). The plate was filmed from the perspective of the participant (first-person perspective; 1PP), or from a frontal view as if watching someone else eating (third-person perspective; 3PP). Our findings reveal that merely viewing unhealthy food cues from a 1PP (vs. 3PP) increases activity in brain regions that underlie representations of rewarding (appetitive) experiences (amygdala) and food intake (superior parietal gyrus). Additionally, our results show that ventral striatal activity is positively correlated with body mass index (BMI) during exposure to unhealthy foods from a 1PP (vs. 3PP). These findings suggest that unhealthy foods should be promoted through third-person (video) images to weaken the reward associated with their simulated consumption, especially amongst overweight people. It appears however that, as such, manipulating visual perspective fails to enhance the perception of healthy foods. Their promotion thus requires complementary solutions.

Oxytocin reduces the functional connectivity between brain regions involved in eating behavior in men with overweight and obesity

“…The amygdala, a brain region involved in salience and stimulus-reward learning (68) was also found in our study to have attenuated functional connectivity with the VTA following the administration of oxytocin. The amygdala has been shown in fMRI studies to respond specifically to visual food cues (69,70) with increased activity in obesity (71) predictive of future weight change (72). In our analysis we also found decreased connectivity between the VTA and hippocampus under oxytocin treatment and in response to the high-calorie visual food images.…”

Linking brain structure and activation in anterior insula cortex to explain the trait empathy for pain

“…Thus, in either 1PP or 3PP visual perspectives, people have to mentally simulate an egocentric visual representation of the context seen. Looking at painful situation from 1PP may be more readily processed than that from 3PP (Basso et al, 2018;Canizales et al, 2013;Vistoli et al, 2016). Some studies also found that painful situations observed in 1PP engage to a greater extent the sensory processes of pain perception comparatively to situations seen from 3PP, which may enhance neurophysiological activity and pain intensity judgments (Canizales et al, 2013;Vistoli et al, 2016).…”

“…Previous findings (Vistoli et al, 2016) showed the activations related to the core network of empathy for pain (i.e., aMCC and insula; Fan et al, 2011) both in the 1PP and 3PP visual perspectives. Looking at painful situation from 1PP may be more readily processed than that from 3PP (Basso et al, 2018;Canizales et al, 2013;Vistoli et al, 2016). Thus, in either 1PP or 3PP visual perspectives, people have to mentally simulate an egocentric visual representation of the context seen.…”

Digital Sensory Marketing: Integrating New Technologies Into Multisensory Online Experience

“…Similarly, the sight of lip movements appears to stimulate the auditory cortex too (Calvert et al 1997). A recent study also showed that watching the hand of someone else grasping food leads to activations in motor-related brain areas (Basso et al 2018). These studies suggest that through perceptual re-enactments, the consumer's senses might be stimulated online.…”