Next on /.: Commercials make you want stuff (Score 1)

"Scientists at McDonald's University have used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to show that a brain network responsible for suppressing hunger or compulsive behaviors became less active after study subjects watched several short clips from popular commercials depicting acts of eating. These changes could render people less able to control their own hunger. Although research has shown some correlation between exposure to media food advertisements and real-life consumption, there has been little direct neuroscientific support for this theory until now. 'Depictions of steaming hot food have become very common in the popular fast food ads,' said researcher Christopher Kelly. 'Our findings demonstrate for the first time that watching media depictions of food does influence processing in parts of the brain that control behaviors like hunger.' The full research paper is published on the The Public Library of Science, a peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication, that publishes all its articles under a Creative Commons Attribution License."