28 June 2012 - FoodNavigator - Fatty food images may trigger hunger

New data reveals that images of high calorie foods results in an increased desire for food by stimulating the appetite control centre of the brain.

The research team at the University of California was led by Kathleen Page.  The team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri) to assess the brain responses of 13 obese people, finding that simply viewing images of high calorie foods such as ice cream and cupcakes activated brain regions that control appetite and reward, unlike pictures of non-foods.