Induction of food craving experience: the role of mental imagery, dietary restraint, mood and coping strategies.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Food craving consists of a strong motivational state whereby a person is driven to seek and ingest a specifically desired food. OBJECTIVES: To explore the influence of mental imagery on the food craving experience as well as to analyse the role of different psychological variables. METHODS: Participants consisted of 65 normal weight undergraduate students. An experimental induction of food craving was analysed considering the actual previous craving and the induced one as a state food craving. Measures of trait food craving, imaging ability, dietary restraint, anxiety, depression, and coping strategies were considered. RESULTS: Sweet foods in general and chocolate in particular were the most craved foods. During the induction thoughts and images were the most highly rated triggers, and all the different sensory modalities were involved. Anxiety, depression, and negative coping strategies influenced the results with regards to the food craving. DISCUSSION: This study confirms the role of mental imagery, the correlation between state and trait food craving, and the influence of different psychological variables on the food craving.
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Humans do not necessarily require physical reward cues; vivid imagery about the reward may be enough to trigger limbic brain activations of incentive salience in people that would require cues in animals.
“Humans don’t necessarily require physical reward cues – vivid imagery about the reward may be enough to trigger limbic brain activations of incentive salience in people that would require cues in animals (May et al., 2004; Kochel et al., 2011; Jauregui-Lobera et al., 2012; Miyapuram et al., 2012).”
From Evolving Concepts of Emotion and Motivation (2018) · cites this paper as Jauregui-Lobera et al., 2012
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- Authors
- Jauregui-Lobera
- Venue
- PubMed
- Publisher
- National Institutes of Health
- Published
- 2013-12-16
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1928-35
- OpenAlex
- W2106290018
- Cited by
- 23
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 4 · 2014: 4
- FWCI
- 1.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Redalyc (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México) (submittedVersion)
- Scientific Electronic library online (Sciences Carlos III Health Institute) (submittedVersion)
- PubMed
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Regulation of Appetite and Obesity
- Keywords
- food cravings, mental imagery, dietary restraint, mood, coping strategies, anxiety, depression, sensory cues, chocolate, sweet foods, motivational states
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Affect, Anxiety, Appetite, Depression, Diet, Eating, Female, Humans, Imagination, Male, Motivation, Students, Young Adult
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