Get in My Belly: Food Preferences Trigger Approach and Avoidant Postural Asymmetries

Tad T Brunyé,Robin B Kanarek,Holly A Taylor,Aaron L Gardony,Caroline R Mahoney,Jackie F Hayes,Ramesh Balasubramaniam

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0072432

Tad T Brunyé, Robin B Kanarek + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0072432

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Abstract

Appetitive motivational states are fundamental neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying healthy and abnormal eating behavior, though their dynamic influence on food-related behavior is unknown. The present study examined whether personal food-related preferences would activate approach and avoidance systems, modulating spontaneous postural sway toward and away from food items. Participants stood on a balance board that collected real-time data regarding postural sway along two axes (x, y) while they viewed a series of images depicting food items varying in nutritional value and individual preferences. Overall, participants showed reliable postural sway toward highly preferred and away from highly non-preferred items. This effect became more pronounced over time; sway along the mediolateral axis showed no reliable variation by preference. Results carry implications for two-factor (homeostatic versus hedonic) neurobehavioral theories of hunger and appetitive motivation, and carry applied clinical implications for the measurement and management of abnormal eating behavior.

Highlights

The cognitive, affective and behavioral neurosciences have provided strong evidence for bidirectional links between approach and avoidance motivational states and overt and covert indices of motor behavior [1]
Contemporary theory posits that these types of motor behavior reliably reflect the engagement of motivational states that are fundamental to human behavior [2,3]
Research in human feeding behavior has suggested that the approach-related appetitive motivational state is responsible for guiding attention to [4], and directing behavior towards [5] preferred food items, a phenomenon coined “hedonic hunger” [6]

Summary

Introduction

The cognitive, affective and behavioral neurosciences have provided strong evidence for bidirectional links between approach and avoidance motivational states and overt (e.g., arm flexion and extension) and covert (e.g., postural sway) indices of motor behavior [1]. Contemporary theory posits that these types of motor behavior reliably reflect the engagement of motivational states that are fundamental to human behavior [2,3]. Research in human feeding behavior has suggested that the approach-related appetitive motivational state is responsible for guiding attention to [4], and directing behavior towards [5] preferred food items, a phenomenon coined “hedonic hunger” [6]. Though there is emerging consensus that experimentally manipulating body posture can influence motivational states (e.g., [7,8]), and viewing aversive images can trigger posterior postural sway (e.g., [9]), relatively sparse research has examined whether posture might reliably index appetitive versus avoidance-related motivations in response to foods. The present study examines this possibility by monitoring anterior (toward) and posterior (away) postural sway and examining whether postural asymmetries can indicate approach and avoidant motivations in response to foods.

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