Attentional Bias For Food Research Articles

Effects of Mindset and Dietary Restraint on Attention Bias for Food and Food Intake.

Evidence for attention bias (AB) for food in restrained eaters is inconsistent. A person’s mindset related to food – that is, whether someone focuses on the hedonic or health aspects of food – might be an overlooked influence on AB for food, possibly explaining the inconsistency in the literature. Fluctuations between a hedonic versus a health mindset might be strongest in restrained eaters, who have a conflicted relationship with food. We investigated the effect of mindset and dietary restraint on AB for food and food intake. We hypothesized that AB for food, as reflected in eye-movement measures and manual response latencies, as well as food intake, would be larger in the hedonic than in the health mindset, most strongly in participants scoring high on dietary restraint. Moreover, we expected a positive correlation between AB for food and food intake, especially in the hedonic mindset. We used short video clips to induce either a health or hedonic mindset. Subsequently, participants (n = 122) performed a modified additional singleton task with pictures of high-caloric food vs neutral pictures as irrelevant distractors. Next, food intake was measured in a bogus taste test. We found no evidence for an AB towards food, nor any moderation by either mindset or dietary restraint. Food intake tended to be higher for participants scoring higher on dietary restraint, but effects were not moderated by mindset. Response-latency based AB for food tended to correlate positively with food intake in the hedonic mindset. Taken together, our hypotheses regarding AB for food were largely not confirmed. We provide suggestions on how to improve upon the specific implementations of our AB task and mindset manipulation, to strengthen future research in this field.

The influence of emotion on eating behavior

<p id=p00010>Eating behavior is not only regulated by the biological needs of people, but is also affected by emotional states, motivations, diseases, and more. There is a complex relationship between emotion and eating behavior. Consuming food can influence peoples emotion. On the other hand, food attention, subjective appetite, and food intake can be influenced by emotion. Many studies have focused on emotional eating due to negative emotions. However, fewer studies focus on the effect that positive emotion has on eating behavior. The relationship between positive emotion and eating behavior is still controversial, as the relationship is underrepresented in research. The present study analyzed the eating behavior of clinical and non-clinical individuals who were affected by negative or positive emotions, and further explored the neurophysiology of eating behaviors and the various theories of the effect that emotions have on eating behaviors. The results showed that negative emotion increased attentional bias and intake for food and subjective appetite in the general population. This process was also affected by other factors; for example, modest women may restrict their food intake while experiencing negative emotions, so they may regain a sense of control which would offset the unpleasant feelings they were experiencing. In this study, there were two results regarding the effect that positive emotion has on eating behaviors. One theory was that positive emotions broaden momentary thought-action repertoires of people, which in turn builds their endurance. This leads us to believe that people resist food intake after positive emotion is induced. However, contrarily, positive emotion could increase hedonistic behavior in people, thus increasing food intake to maintain the experience of pleasure. Negative emotion increased both attention bias for food cues and subsequent intake in people with bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorders. Negative emotion causes decreased food intake in people suffering from anorexia nervosa. Positive emotion decreased binge eating in people with bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorders and relieved restrictive eating behaviors in people with anorexia nervosa. According to the reward theory, negative emotion can enhance reward sensitivity toward food. Following increased food intake, this process may show a synergy effect in the amygdala, insula, orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Negative emotion ruins the inhibitory control of individuals, meaning that they may begin to overeat, in association with the activation of the anterior cingulate cortex. According to self-related theory, negative emotion induces negative self-awareness. People can show attention bias due to immediate environmental stimulus, as overeating is meant to help people escape from their own negative self-awareness. Placing their attention on binge eating allows people with bulimia or other binge eating disorders to avoid dealing with information or environmental stimulus that may be hurtful. From the perspective of social culture, most eating behaviors with positive emotion have some special or celebratory meaning which increases the hedonic-oriented eating behavior of the individual. In general, the association between emotion and eating behavior has a certain regularity to follow. In the study, during a negative emotion, an individual’s eating behavior manifested in an extreme, unhealthy pattern, whether that meant an increased or decreased food intake. This study found a direct association between emotion and eating behavior; However, social culture, symbolism and connotation of certain foods, and an individual’s default eating styles (disinhibited and restrained eating) should be considered alongside the influence that emotion has on eating behaviors. In addition, most past studies self-reported food intake and subjective appetite as recorded by the individuals as the measurement. Future studies should adopt neuro-physiological methods to explore the effect of emotion on eating behavior and study a small set of neurons in the hypothalamus which regulates appetite, for example.

Attentional bias in eating disorders: A meta-review.

This meta-review summarizes and synthesizes the most reliable findings regarding attentional bias in eating disorders across paradigms and stimulus types and considers implications for theory and future research. Four databases were systematically searched, along with reference lists of included reviews, yielding 15 systematic reviews (four of which were also meta-analyses). The quality of each review was appraised using the AMSTAR-2. Key findings from systematic reviews are summarized, organized by paradigm and stimulus type. The authors synthesize evidence from the highest-quality studies. There is evidence for attentional avoidance and vigilance in eating disorders depending on stimulus properties (low vs. high-calorie food; high-body mass vs. low-body mass index photos of others) and attentional avoidance of food stimuli in those with anorexia nervosa. Sad mood induction may generate attentional bias for food in those with binge-eating disorder. There may also be attentional bias to general threat in eating disorder samples. This meta-review concludes that most systematic reviews in this field are low in quality and summarizes the main areas that could be improved upon in future reviews. Implications of this study's findings for theory and intervention research are also discussed.

Food is special by itself: Neither valence, arousal, food appeal, nor caloric content modulate the attentional bias induced by food images

When food cues appear in a visual context, such information is likely to influence eating behavior by enhancing attention for food cues. We investigated whether active but task-irrelevant information could modulate the attentional bias for food stimuli using a novel paradigm in which participants were purposely deceived by being enrolled in a memory experiment. A set of images were first held in working memory and then used as task-irrelevant distractors in a subsequent single target rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task, allowing us to investigate the attentional blink (AB) effect elicited by those images. In Experiment 1, the results revealed that food images elicited a larger AB effect than nonfood images. In three follow-up experiments, we investigated whether valence or arousal (Experiment 2), food preparation (Experiment 3), or food caloric content (Experiment 4) were factors related to the attentional bias for food. Overall, our results demonstrated that when held in working memory, food images can easily capture attention, even in circumstances in which the information retained in memory is irrelevant to solve the task, as indicated by the strong correlation found between items that were recognized in the RSVP task and the AB effect. Nonetheless, none of the food-related properties we examined were found to be associated with this attentional bias for food.

Hungry for colours? Attentional bias for food crucially depends on perceptual information.

Attentional bias has been consistently investigated with both threatening and rewarding stimuli, such as food. Several studies demonstrated the presence of an attentional bias for high-calorie food cues compared to neutral (non-food) cues. Authors have interpreted this effect in the context of top-down processes (e.g. the food draws attention thanks to the experience we have with it). The aim of the present study is to test whether perceptual features (bottom-up processes) can modulate the attentional bias effect of food stimuli. Using a dot-probe task, we investigated the relevance of colours in the occurrence of the attentional bias. We compared two different categories of naturalistic food images (high-calorie versus low-calorie) both coloured (Exp. 1) and greyscale (Exp. 2). While we found the occurrence of the attentional bias with high-calorie food coloured images, we did not obtain any significant differences with greyscale images. In Experiments 3 and 4, we compared greyscale office items images, respectively, with greyscale high-calorie food images (Exp. 3) and greyscale low-calorie food images (Exp. 4). In both these last experiments, we did not find any attentional bias. Thus, taken together, our results show that colours convey crucial identity information that could orient our attention. We interpret these results as linked to the relevance of visual appearance in our experience of food.

0257 Preliminary Findings: Attentional Bias for Food Cues Unrelated to Time Awake or Circadian Phase During Forced Desynchrony in Adolescents

Abstract Introduction Sleep quantity and quality influence attentional bias, and attentional bias for food cues has been associated with body weight. Whether the endogenous circadian cycle and/or time from awakening to bedtime contribute to attentional bias for food and differences in weight remain unclear. Using a 28-h forced desynchrony (FD) design, we hypothesized that adolescents with overweight (OW) and obesity (O) would have more attentional bias for food cues later in the wake episode and at a later circadian phase compared to adolescents with a healthy weight (HW). Methods 50 (28 male) adolescents (12-15yr) completed 7 FD cycles. Participants completed an attentional bias task that included three food word categories (savory, sweet, fruits/vegetables) and one non-food word category (school supplies). The task was completed at 6 fixed times each cycle: Task 1 was 1.3h after scheduled awaking, Task 2 was 2h after Task 1, and Tasks 3–6 followed at 3-h intervals. Weight categorization used body mass index (BMI) percentiles (CDC): HW (&amp;gt;5th and &amp;lt;85th; n=24), OW (85th and &amp;lt;95th; n=13), or O (≥95th; n=14). Endogenous circadian period was determined using salivary melatonin onsets (Mean: HW=23.88h; OW=24.01h; O=23.86h). Effect of circadian phase and time since scheduled awakening was assessed by mixed effects modeling using 6 circadian and 6 time-awake bins. Results We found no significant differences between weight groups in attentional bias for any of the food categories (p’s &amp;gt;.05). We also saw no significant time awake effects or circadian influence on attentional bias, nor did time awake or circadian phase moderate the associations between weight category and attentional bias (p’s &amp;gt;.05). Conclusion Weight groups did not impact food-related attentional bias across the wake episode or circadian phase. Future directions will explore whether attentional bias for food types predicts food choice and food consumption in this study. Support DK101046

Dynamics of attentional bias for food in Dutch and Chinese children and the role of executive control

The current study examined the relationships among dynamics of attentional bias for food, executive control and adjusted BMI% among children. 106 Dutch (8-12 years old, 56.60% female) and 99 Chinese children (9-13 years old, 44.44% female) participated in the study. All participants first completed a self-report hunger questionnaire, and then the food dot-probe task and attention network task were administered. Both mean attentional bias and the variability of attentional bias were computed as people often experience the opposite goals to approach and avoid palatable food. We hypothesized that only the variability of attentional bias for food would be positively related to adjusted BMI%. In addition, such association would be moderated by the executive control, which would be also negatively related to adjusted BMI%. The results showed that adjusted BMI% was only positively associated with the variability of attentional bias for food in Dutch children. However, such association did not exist in Chinese children and executive control was not a significant moderator of the relation between the variability of attentional bias for food and adjusted BMI% in both Dutch and Chinese children. Unexpected, compared with Dutch children, Chinese children had stronger executive control, which was directly related to a lower adjusted BMI%. This study emphasized both TL-BS variability for food and executive control might have an effect on adjusted BMI%, in addition, culture possibly serve as a reason for the inconsistent results between Dutch and Chinese children.

The Effect of Neuroticism Level on Restrained Eaters' Thinness Fantasy and Attentional Bias for Food.

The aim of this study was to examine the role of restrained eaters’ neuroticism level in thinness fantasy and attentional bias for food following exposure to thin-ideal images. Eighty-five female participants were classified into four groups on the basis of their dietary restraint (restrained/unrestrained eaters) and neuroticism level (high/low). They completed self-reports (mood, body dissatisfaction level) on a visual analog scale before and after exposure to thin-ideal images, and then their attentional bias for food was measured using eye-movements. Results indicated that after exposure to thin-ideal images, positive affect was more decreased in restrained eaters with high neuroticism compared to other groups and negative affect was increased in all groups except unrestrained eaters with low neuroticism. Also, restrained eaters with high neuroticism showed a heightened vigilance for food. These findings underscore the role of neuroticism in restrained eaters as a moderating factor of thinness fantasy.

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

Visual attention for food is likely to play an important role for overeating. The attentional bias for visual food stimuli was investigated with respect to self-reported restrained, external and emotional eating style. Using a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation task (N = 103), the effects of visual food stimuli in the context of the attentional blink were examined. Food targets enhanced the attentional blink when presented as first targets in a rapid stream of pictures and impaired the identification of preceding non-food targets in terms of a backward interference when presented as second targets. Task irrelevant food distractors interfered with the identification of subsequent non-food targets. The effects provide evidence for a prioritisation of food stimuli in the allocation of attentional resources. The attentional bias for food emerged as a universal phenomenon irrespective of personal eating style. Therefore, enhanced attention for visual food stimuli seems to play no direct causal role in eating styles associated with overeating.

Same, same but different: Attention bias for food cues in adults and adolescents with anorexia nervosa.

Attention processing for food may be biased in people with Anorexia Nervosa (AN). However, previous studies have had inconsistent results. This is likely to be due to indirect assessment of attention, which does not inform on the underlying attention processes, and/or the heterogeneity of participants across studies, testing either adults or adolescents with AN, that is, people at very different developmental and illness stages. Eye-tracking was employed as a direct assessment of attention during a visual probe task with food versus non-food pictures. Attention bias for food was measured in 39 adults and 34 adolescents with AN and in 53 adults and 31 adolescents without AN. All participants had a direction bias for food, specifically for high-calorie food. However, adults with AN subsequently avoided maintaining attention on food versus non-food cues, compared to adults without AN. Adolescents with or without AN demonstrated increased attention maintenance on food versus non-food cues, and, contrary to our hypothesis, did not differ in their attention bias for food cues. Accordingly, adults with AN differed significantly from adolescents with AN in attention maintenance for food cues: while adolescents with AN showed significantly increased attention maintenance on food stimuli, adults avoided maintaining attention on food cues. Adults with AN may apply attention strategies to facilitate restrictive eating. This strategy is absent in adolescents with AN. This difference in food-related attention bias between adolescents and adults with AN suggests that attention biases develop over time as the illness progresses.

Test-retest reliability of attention bias for food: Robust eye-tracking and reaction time indices

This study assessed internal reliability and test-retest reliability of attention bias scores for food derived from the dot probe task. A visual dot probe task with food and non-food pictures (presented for 3000 ms) was administered to 53 healthy women on two occasions. Attention bias scores for food were calculated based on manual response latencies (reaction time bias) and concurrent assessment of eye-movements (direction bias and dwell-time bias). Subjective hunger and blood glucose levels were measured on both testing occasions. Dietary restraint and eating disorder symptoms were assessed during the second session. Results showed that direction bias had poor internal and test-retest reliability. Dwell time bias had excellent internal and acceptable test-retest reliability. Reaction time bias had acceptable internal and good test-retest reliability. Exploratory correlational analyses found that hunger, blood glucose, dietary restraint and eating disorder symptoms were not consistently significantly correlated with indices of attention bias for food. Overall, these findings contradict previous studies that reported low reliability of attention bias indices derived from the visual dot probe task. The implications are that a longer stimulus presentation time (i.e. ≥ 3000 ms), the use of eye-tracking and the use of appetizing stimuli can yield reliable attention bias scores for food. However, the interpretation of dot-probe scores of attention bias for food based on a dot probe task with 3000 ms presentation time and the score's relationship to theoretically relevant constructs such as hunger, eating restraint and eating disorder symptoms, require further clarification.

Dynamics of attentional bias for food in adults, children, and restrained eaters

ObjectiveEmpirical evidence of attentional bias (AB) for food in obese and restrained eaters is contradictory. It has been suggested that AB for food in obese people might reflect both food craving and food-related concerns. Thus, AB for food may be a dynamic process. MethodsA new computational methodology (Zvielli, Bernstein, & Koster, 2015) was adopted to reanalyze the reaction time (RT) and dwell time of three food-related dot-probe task with eye-tracking studies (Werthmann et al., 2015; Werthmann et al., 2011, 2013). This new computing method uses a sequence of bias scores to express the dynamic changes of AB. Moreover, the variability of RT on filler trials was also calculated. The critical groups in these studies were overweight/obese adults, obese children, and healthy-weight restrained eaters. ResultsBoth the variability of AB for food stimuli and the variability of RT on filler could significantly predict the variance in body mass index (BMI). When controlling for the variability of RT on filler trials and mean AB score, larger variability of AB for food stimuli still existed in obese children and aggregated dataset. The variability of AB for food stimuli demonstrated no significant correlation with restrained eating scores and dwell time variability. ConclusionsOverweight/obese individuals are characterized by more variability in attention, and this variability is mainly unspecific. It probably reflects less effective executive control ability.

Top-down guidance of attention to food cues is enhanced in individuals with overweight/obesity and predicts change in weight at one-year follow up

BackgroundChanging eating behaviour may be challenging for individuals with obesity and this may be related to attentional bias towards food. Previous paradigms used to assess attentional bias to food stimuli have not distinguished between bottom-up processes related to assessment of rewarding stimuli versus top-down processes related to effects of mind-set on attention. We investigated whether attentional bias for food cues varies between individuals with overweight/obesity and healthy weight individuals, due to differential top-down control of attention. We also determined whether top-down biases predict food consumption in the lab and weight change in our sample over one-year.MethodsForty-three participants with overweight/obesity and 49 healthy weight participants between the ages of 18 and 58 participated. Participants completed two attention tasks in a counterbalanced order: (i) a priming task assessing bottom-up control of attention and (ii) a working memory task assessing top-down control of attention. Eating behaviour was assessed by a taste test. At one-year follow-up participants returned to the laboratory to assess changes in their body mass index (BMI).ResultsThe healthy weight and overweight/obese groups did not differ in demographics and baseline measures (appetite, food liking, taste test food intake). Participants with overweight/obesity showed greater top-down attentional bias towards food cues than did healthy weight participants but had no difference in bottom-up attentional bias. Top down attentional bias towards food cues predicted weight change over one-year but did not predict food intake in the taste test.ConclusionsThe present findings illustrate that the relationship between attentional bias for food, food intake, and body weight is complex. Top-down effects of mind-set on attention, rather than bottom-up control of attention to food may contribute to patterns of eating that result in development and/or maintenance of overweight/obesity. Interventions targeted at top down biases could be effective in facilitating prevention of weight gain.

Effect of dietary restraint and mood state on attentional processing of food cues

Background and objectivesResearch linking dietary restraint to attentional bias toward food cues has been equivocal, suggesting that dietary restraint may only influence attentional processing of food in certain contexts. The present study examined whether negative mood strengthens the association between dietary restraint and attention bias for food. MethodsHealthy female participants were randomized to either a neutral (n = 47) or negative mood (n = 49) induction. Participants then completed a visual search task featuring targets displayed adjacent to pictures of palatable food, musical instruments, or non-instrument filler objects. Attention bias for food was operationalized as shorter response latency when the target appeared adjacent to palatable food as compared to musical instruments. Attention bias was examined in a 2 (mood condition) × 2 (picture: food vs. instrument) × 2 (target location: match vs. mismatch) repeated measures ANCOVA, with dietary restraint as a continuous covariate and response latency as the dependent variable. ResultsThough there was no evidence of an interaction between mood condition and dietary restraint, mood had an influence on attention allocation. Contrary to study hypotheses, individuals in the neutral mood condition, but not those in the negative mood condition, responded in a manner indicative of bias toward food. LimitationsAdditional research is necessary to validate the experimental task used in the present study to assess food-specific attentional bias. ConclusionsNeutral mood may be associated with enhanced processing of palatable food cues. Critically, results do not support the hypothesized link between negative mood and attention bias for food.

A novel approach to measuring attentional bias for food using load theory: A preliminary investigation

A novel approach to measuring attentional bias for food using load theory: A preliminary investigation

Gene by cognition interaction on stress-induced attention bias for food: Effects of 5-HTTLPR and ruminative thinking

IntroductionStress is often found to increase the preference and intake of high caloric foods. This effect is known as emotional eating and is influenced by cognitive as well as biological stress vulnerabilities. An S-allele of the 5-HTTLPR gene has been linked to decreased (brain) serotonin efficiency, leading to decreased stress resilience and increased risks for negative affect and eating related disturbances. Recently it has been proposed that a cognitive ruminative thinking style can further exacerbate the effect of this gene by prolonging the already increased stress response, thereby potentially increasing the risk of compensating by overeating high palatable foods. ObjectiveThis study was aimed at investigating whether there is an increased risk for emotional eating in high ruminative S/S-allele carriers reflected by an increased attention bias for high caloric foods during stress. MethodsFrom a large (N=827) DNA database, participants (N=100) were selected based on genotype (S/S or L/L) and ruminative thinking style and performed an eye-tracking visual food-picture probe task before and after acute stress exposure. A significant Genotype x Rumination x Stress-interaction was found on attention bias for savory food; indicating that a stress-induced attention bias for specifically high-caloric foods is moderated by a gene x cognitive risk factor. ConclusionBoth a genetic (5-HTTLPR) and cognitive (ruminative thinking) stress vulnerability may mutually increase the risk for stress-related abnormal eating patterns.

Examining the relationship between selective attentional bias for food- and body-related stimuli and purging behaviour in bulimia nervosa

Previous research exploring cognitive biases in bulimia nervosa suggests that attentional biases occur for both food-related and body-related cues. Individuals with bulimia were compared to non-bulimic controls on an emotional-Stroop task which contained both food-related and body-related cues. Results indicated that bulimics (but not controls) demonstrated a cognitive bias for both food-related and body-related cues. However, a discrepancy between the two cue-types was observed with body-related cognitive biases showing the most robust effects and food-related cognitive biases being the most strongly associated with the severity of the disorder. The results may have implications for clinical practice as bulimics with an increased cognitive bias for food-related cues indicated increased bulimic disorder severity.

Visual attentional bias for food in adolescents with binge-eating disorder

Evidence suggests that adults with binge-eating disorder (BED) are prone of having their attention interfered by food cues, and that food-related attentional biases are associated with calorie intake and eating disorder psychopathology. For adolescents with BED experimental evidence on attentional processing of food cues is lacking. Using eye-tracking and a visual search task, the present study examined visual orienting and disengagement processes of food in youth with BED. Eye-movement data and reaction times were recorded in 25 adolescents (12–20 years) with BED and 25 controls (CG) individually matched for sex, age, body mass index, and socio-economic status. During a free exploration paradigm, the BED group showed a greater gaze duration bias for food images than the CG. Groups did not differ in gaze direction biases. In a visual search task, the BED group showed a greater detection bias for food targets than the CG. Group differences were more pronounced for personally attractive than unattractive food images. Regarding clinical associations, only in the BED group the gaze duration bias for food was associated with increased hunger and lower body mass index, and the detection bias for food targets was associated with greater reward sensitivity. The study provided first evidence of an attentional bias to food in adolescents with BED. However, more research is needed for further specifying disengagement and orienting processes in adolescent BED, including overt and covert attention, and their prospective associations with binge-eating behaviors and associated psychopathology.

Make up your mind about food: A healthy mindset attenuates attention for high-calorie food in restrained eaters

Attention bias for food could be a cognitive pathway to overeating in obesity and restrained eating. Yet, empirical evidence for individual differences (e.g., in restrained eating and body mass index) in attention bias for food is mixed. We tested experimentally if temporarily induced health versus palatability mindsets influenced attention bias for food, and whether restrained eating moderated this relation. After manipulating mindset (health vs. palatability) experimentally, food-related attention bias was measured by eye-movements (EM) and response latencies (RL) during a visual probe task depicting high-calorie food and non-food. Restrained eating was assessed afterwards. A significant interaction of mindset and restrained eating on RL bias emerged, β = 0.36, t(58) = 2.05, p = 0.045: A health mindset – as compared to a palatability mindset – attenuated attention bias for high-caloric food only in participants with higher eating restraint. No effects were observed on EM biases. The current results demonstrate that state differences in health versus palatability mindsets can cause attenuated attention bias for high-calorie food cues in participants with higher eating restraint. Our findings add to emerging evidence that state differences in mindsets can bias attention for food, above the influence of trait differences.

Brain dopamine and serotonin transporter binding are associated with visual attention bias for food in lean men.

In rodents, the striatal dopamine (DA) system and the (hypo)thalamic serotonin (5-HT) system are involved in the regulation of feeding behavior. In lean humans, little is known about the relationship between these brain neurotransmitter systems and feeding. We studied the relationship between striatal DA transporters (DAT) and diencephalic 5-HT transporters (SERT), behavioral tasks and questionnaires, and food intake. We measured striatal DAT and diencephalic SERT binding with [123I]FP-CIT SPECT in 36 lean male subjects. Visual attention bias for food (detection speed and distraction time) and degree of impulsivity were measured using response-latency-based computer tasks. Craving and emotional eating were assessed with questionnaires and ratings of hunger by means of VAS scores. Food intake was assessed through a self-reported online diet journal. Striatal DAT and diencephalic SERT binding negatively correlated with food detection speed (p = 0.008, r = -0.50 and p = 0.002, r = -0.57, respectively), but not with food distraction time, ratings of hunger, craving or impulsivity. Striatal DAT and diencephalic SERT binding did not correlate with free choice food intake, whereas food detection speed positively correlated with total caloric intake (p = 0.001, r = 0.60), protein intake (p = 0.01, r = 0.44), carbohydrate intake (p = 0.03, r = 0.39) and fat intake (p = 0.06, r = 0.35). These results indicate a role for the central 5-HT and DA system in the regulation of visual attention bias for food, which contributes to the motivation to eat, in non-obese, healthy humans. In addition, this study confirms that food detection speed, measured with the latency-based computer task, positively correlates with total food and macronutrient intake.