Assessing the relationship between food-related mental imagery and appetite

Abstract

Mental imagery (MI) engages neural and cognitive mechanisms that closely parallel those involved in actual perceptual processing, but it remains unknown whether food-related MI shows similar appetite-dependent modulation as food perception. Across two experiments, we examined (i) whether metabolic state alters the strength of food-related MI, and (ii) whether generating repeated food-related MI influences hedonic evaluations of food (i.e. chocolate cookies). In Experiment 1, participants were asked to generate flavour and texture MI using visual cues, in either a hunger or satiated state. MI strength, indexed by vividness, ease, and generation speed, was greater when hungry than sated for flavour MI only. In Experiment 2, liking and wanting for food samples were measured prior to and following 30 trials of flavour- or texture-specific consumption MI. Repeated MI did not alter the hedonic value of the food samples, but imagined liking declined across trials. Findings demonstrate that (1) metabolic state modulates the generation of multisensory MI, and (2) MI itself selectively adjusts imagined, but not perceptual, hedonic responses. The results reveal new findings on the interactions between MI and appetite, offering insight into the functional architecture linking simulation, reward processing, and metabolic state.