Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

We examined the physiological changes brought on by the sight of foods in people with high eating disorder tendencies rel-ative to normal controls. Graduate students were assessed for eating disorder tendencies using a questionnaire. Functionalnear-infrared spectroscopy was used to observe participants when five pictures were presented, in five categories: popularfood (fried chicken), non-popular food (Japanese simmered dishes), inedible object (screw), comfortable animal (rabbit),and uncomfortable animal (cockroach). Most participants oxyhemoglobin density was found to be different in response totwo pictures (fried chicken and cockroach). This indicates that this level of cerebral blood flow corresponds to unpleasantfeelings. However, students with higher eating disorder tendencies showed high-level oxyhemoglobin density in the samechannel, indicating discomfort, in response to popular food, neutral objects, and the uncomfortable animal. Our studyimplies the attitudes toward foods totally differ at cognition in people with high eating disorder tendencies compared withhealthy people.