How can looking at appetizing food pictures affect our bodies and attention?

Details

The authors reviewed cognitive neuroscience research on how people respond to appealing food images. Their central finding is that these images can influence both how the brain and body respond and where visual attention goes, with hunger being an important condition.

The review also asks whether increasing exposure to food pictures through digital media might intensify the desire to eat. That is a possibility the authors raise, rather than an established consequence reported in this abstract. The abstract does not show that viewing food pictures causes overeating or obesity, or explain how responses to pictures translate into actual eating.