The ability to vividly imagine the smell of popcorn, freshly baked cookies and even non-food odours is greater in obese adults, scientists, including one of Indian-origin, have found.
People vary greatly in their ability to imagine the smell of freshly baked bread or the sweet aroma of a bouquet of roses.
This raises the possibility that differences in the ability to image odours, especially food odours, might promote food cravings.
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Researchers at The John B Pierce Laboratory and the Yale School of Medicine based the new study on the Elaborated Intrusion Theory of Desire, which proposes that creating vivid mental images stimulates and maintains food cravings triggered by the thought, smell and sight of food.
Although previous research demonstrates that food cravings occur more often in obese individuals, the role of odour imagery ability in this link had not been examined.
In the study, participants completed a series of questionnaires that asked them to imagine both visual and odour cues and then to subsequently rate the vividness of these cues.
The researchers found that individuals with a higher body mass index (BMI) reported greater ability to vividly imagine food and non-food odours.
"These findings highlight the need for a more individualistic approach in identifying factors that may increase risk for weight gain," said study lead author Dr Barkha Patel, a Postdoctoral Fellow at The John B Pierce Laboratory.
The findings also call for "future work to assess imagery ability directly rather than relying upon self-report measures," said senior author Dr Dana Small, Deputy Director at the John B Pierce Laboratory.
