When Hunger Finds No Fault With Moldy Corn: Food Deprivation Reduces Food-Related Disgust

The main purpose of this study was to examine if disgust toward unpalatable foods would be reduced among food-deprived subjects and if this attenuation would occur automatically even under moderate levels of food deprivation. Subjects were either satiated or food deprived for 15 hours and electromyo-graphic activity was recorded at the levator muscle region while they were watching pictures of palatable versus unpalatable foods, and pictures of positive versus disgust-related control pictures. For control purposes, subjects' activity of the zygomaticus and corrugator muscles was also recorded. As compared with satiated subjects, food-deprived subjects exhibited stronger activity in the zygomaticus muscle region when watching pictures of palatable foods (but not when watching positive control pictures). More important, hungry subjects exhibited weaker activity in the levator muscle region when watching pictures of unpalatable foods (but not when watching disgusting control pictures). Thus, this is the first study ever to show that specific emotions (disgust) are moderated by homeostatic dysregulation automatically. Results indicate that the modulation of facial expressions might play an important role in lowering the threshold for food intake.