FOOD STIMULI AND GENDER

9

Gender differences in responses to visual food stimuli have been reported in some
neuroimaging studies. An activation of energy intake regulation areas of the brain has been
detected in both men and women. Neuronal responses to food stimuli measured by fMRIs
found a difference in women compared to men. Women showed stronger parietal (attention)
and prefrontal (cognitive processing) responses to food stimuli and seemed to be more
sensitive to food intake measured by post-meal satiety ratings. (Cornier, Salzberg, Endly,
Bessesen, & Tregellas, 2010; Uher, Treasure, Heining, Brammer, & Campbell, 2006)
A study presenting food stimuli of different tastes and measuring brain activity in
hungry and sated state showed that women had a lower variation in brain activation going
from hunger to satiation than mane and higher brain activation at a satiated or hungry state
(Haase, Green, & Murphy, 2011). Another study presented high-calorie and low-calorie
food stimuli compared to non-food stimuli. This study also showed gender differences in
brain activation in a satiated state (Frank et al., 2010)
Based on the reported gender differences in the response to food stimuli, the first
hypothesis for the present study is as follows:
H1: Attention to food stimuli differs between men and women.
A stronger preference for hot and spicy food has been found in men; a correlation
has been found between blood testosterone levels and hot food (Bègue, Bricout, Boudesseul,
Shankland, & Duke, 2015). A study on comfort food preferences found that: “Males
preferred warm, hearty, meal-related comfort foods (such as steak, casseroles, and soup),
while females instead preferred comfort foods that were more snack related (such as
chocolate and ice cream)” (Wansink, Cheney, & Chan, 2003). Other studies on dietary
intake support this gender difference (Bugge & Lavik, 2012; Hiroyasu, Chigusa, Hiroyuki,
Takesumi, & Akiko, 2005).