The effect of food anticipation on cognitive function: An eye tracking study

Abstract

By randomizing the order in which participants perform a cognitive test and a food choice task in a controlled experiment, we investigate whether cognitive capacity can be enhanced by the simple act of anticipating food intake. Our findings show that overweight and obese participants exhibit an anticipatory food reward effect, which helped enhance their mental resources and improve their performance in a cognitive test. However, we find no anticipation effect among normal weight participants. Furthermore, eye tracking data reveal that food temptation, in the form of visual attention and emotional arousal is higher for overweight and obese individuals when they are cognitively impaired.

Fig 1. Accuracy on Raven’s test by treatment and BMI category.

Accuracy represents the proportion of correct answers in the Raven’s (cognitive) test; *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, and * p < 0.10; mean comparisons are performed using Wilcoxon rank-sum tests.

Fig 2. Attention level (temptation) towards food products by treatment and BMI category.

Attention (temptation) is measured as the difference in time visit duration between the regular versus the lite snacks (δTVD); positive values means that subjects spend more time looking at the lite snacks, while negative values implies the opposite.

Fig 3. Average pupil size during food choice task by treatment and BMI category.

Average pupil size is used as indicative of emotional arousal exhibit by subjects while looking at the snacks in the food choice task; *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, and * p < 0.10; mean comparisons are performed using Wilcoxon Rank-Sum tests.