Faster Grasping of High-Calorie Food Objects in Virtual Reality

Abstract Purpose: Attractive food elicits approaching behavior, which could be directly assessed in a combination of Virtual Reality (VR) with online motion-capture. Thus, VR enables the assessment of motivated approach and avoidance behavior towards food and non-food cues in controlled laboratory environments. Aim of this study was to test the specificity of a behavioral approach bias for high-calorie food in grasp movements compared to low-calorie food and neutral objects of different complexity, namely, simple balls and geometrically more complex tools. Methods: In a VR setting, healthy participants repeatedly grasped or pushed high-calorie food, low-calorie food, balls and office tools in randomized order with 30 item repetitions. All objects were rated for valence and arousal. Results: High-calorie food was less attractive and more arousing in subjective ratings than low-calorie food and neutral objects. Responses to high-calorie food were fastest only in grasp trials, but comparisons with low-calorie food and complex tools were inconclusive. Conclusion: A behavioral bias for food may be specific to high-calorie food objects, but more systematic variations of object fidelity are outstanding. The utility of VR in assessing approach behavior is confirmed in this study by exploring manual interactions in a controlled environment.