AUTHOR=Becker Christoph A. , Flaisch Tobias , Renner Britta , Schupp Harald T. TITLE=Neural Correlates of the Perception of Spoiled Food Stimuli JOURNAL=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience VOLUME=10 YEAR=2016 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00302 DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2016.00302 ISSN=1662-5161 ABSTRACT=
The elicitation of disgust by the view of spoiled and rotten foods is considered as an adaptation preventing the ingestion of harmful microorganisms and pathogens. To provide an effective behavioral defense, inedible food items need to be detected automatically, i.e., in the absence of explicit processing goals, early in the processing stream, and triggering an alarm response, i.e., increased attentional capture. To examine these hypotheses, a set of stimulus material consisting of images of perishable foods (i.e., dairies, meats, fruits, and vegetables) at various stages of natural decay ranging from appetitive to disgusting was developed. In separate sessions, functional imaging and dense sensor event related potential (ERP) data were collected while participants (