TV-watching snackers beware: You won't notice you're full if your
attention is elsewhere

Date:
August 12, 2020
Source:
University of Sussex
Summary:
Eating while doing something perceptually-demanding makes it more
difficult to notice when you feel full, shows new research.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Eating while doing something perceptually-demanding makes it more
difficult to notice when you feel full, shows new research from the
University of Sussex.


========================================================================== Professor Martin Yeomans, Dr Sophie Forster and colleagues found that
when your senses are taken up by an engaging task, you are less likely
to be able to adjust how much extra food or drink you consume. The team
tested 120 participants, giving them lower and higher calorie drinks
and giving them tasks which demanded both low and high amounts of their attention. The paper "Ingested but not perceived: response to satiety
cues disrupted by perceptual load" is published today 12 August 2020 in
the journal Appetite.

The team found that participants who were fully engaged in a perceptually- demanding task ate roughly the same amount of follow-up crisps regardless
of whether or not they were initially given a high or low calorie
drink. But the people who were engaged in a task which demanded less of
them could adjust how much of the additional snack they ate. The people
in this group ate 45% fewer crisps after the higher energy drink than
after the lower energy drink.

Previous research has shown that when perceptual demand is high -- so
that's where the senses are engaged fully -- then the brain filters out
some of the sensory information. This is the first time that research
has shown that sensory and nutrient cues associated with becoming full (satiety) could be filtered out in a similar way.

Professor Martin Yeomans from the School of Psychology at the University
of Sussex, said: "Our study suggests that if you're eating or drinking
while your attention is distracted by a highly engaging task, you're
less likely to be able to tell how full you feel. You're more likely
to keep snacking than if you'd been eating while doing something less
engaging. This is important for anyone wanting to stay a healthy weight:
if you're a habitual TV-watching snacker -- watching, say, an engaging
thriller or mystery, or a film with a lot of audio or visual effects
-- you're not likely to notice when you feel full. Video-gamers and
crossword solvers should also take note! "We already knew that feeling
full could be affected by the texture and appearance of food, as well
as pre-existing expectations about how full we think a type of food
should make us feel. Now we also know that feeling full depends on
how much sensory information our brains are processing at the time."
About the research One-hundred and twenty participants consumed either
a low-satiety (75kcal) or high-satiety (272kcal and thicker texture)
drink while simultaneously completing a task which was either low or
high in perceptual demand. The participants who were given the low
perceptual load task, and were given the high-satiety drink felt more
full and ate 45% less of the snack offered to them afterwards. However,
the participants who were given the higher load perception task were less
able to tell when they felt full, and ate more of the snacks offered to
them. The researchers conclude that a person's ability to notice when
the body feels full depends on how much available attention there is
'left' in the brain.

The results provide the first evidence that Load Theory of attention
(the idea that a person has a limited amount of sensory information they
can notice) can be successfully applied to eating habits.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Sussex. Original
written by Anna Ford.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Jenny Morris, Chi Thanh Vi, Marianna Obrist, Sophie Forster,
Martin R.

Yeomans. Ingested but not perceived: Response to satiety cues
disrupted by perceptual load. Appetite, 2020; 104813 DOI: 10.1016/
j.appet.2020.104813 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200812144029.htm

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