title: Effects of imagining eating favorable and unfavorable foods on gastric motility indexed by electrogastrographic (EGG) activities.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of imagining favorable or unfavorable foods on the amplitude of EGG recordings. 40 subjects were assigned to Favorable food and Unfavorable food groups in which they were asked to imagine eating a list of favorable foods or unfavorable foods. Subjects sat in a chair for 16 min, of baseline measurement prior to the 16 min. of food imagining. Electrogastrographic (EGG) activities were recorded continuously throughout. Using Fast Fourier Transform analysis, the spectral power of EGG activity of 3 cycles per minute (cpm) was calculated, and the ratios of EGG 3 cpm spectral power for the period of food imagining and baseline were obtained. The EGG amplitude at 3 cpm during imagining eating a list of unfavorable food was significantly lower than that of the baseline period and the EGG ratio between the food-imagining and baseline periods was significantly lower in the Unfavorable group than in the Favorable food group. It appears that imagining eating unfavorable food significantly inhibited gastric motility as indexed by decreased power of EGG activities at 3 cpm.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neurosciences and Learning, Beijing Normal University.
authors.forename: Renlai
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Senqi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004566:Electrodes; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000295:instrumentation; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D005518:Food Preferences; D005769:Gastrointestinal Motility / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D013270:Stomach / Q000502:physiology*