Scientists from the California Institute of Technology have detected brain zones responsible for choosing between tasty and healthy food. In the study, they selected healthy food enthusiasts who additionally stuck to low-calorie diet.
People in the experiment were shown 50 pictures of various foods, from chips and chocolate to cauliflower, and asked to indicate each food item as tasty or healthy. Then, the scientists suggested the volunteers to pick any food they saw for snack. The process of choosing was controlled by magnetic resonance tomography.
It showed that those who chose healthy food had one brain zone activated (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) while those who went for tasty food were driven by another (ventromedial prefrontal cortex). Scientists think that it would be possible to develop healthy eating patterns by stimulating specific brain zones.
Source of the image: sxc.hu.
