ProjectPublished on 22.01.2026
How do eating disorders influence people’s eye movements towards food and body images in the absence of visual awareness?
In individuals with eating disorders, altered attitudes toward food and body image are well documented at the conscious level. However, far less is known about how such information is processed unconsciously and whether it biases the treatment of food- and body-related stimuli. To address this question, our colleague Petra Vetter was awarded a research pool grant for a project entitled "How do eating disorders influence people’s eye movements towards food and body images in the absence of visual awareness?". This study proposes a novel and innovative paradigm combining continuous flash suppression with high-resolution eye tracking to examine whether invisible images of high-calorie foods and different body types attract or repel eye movements in individuals with subclinical eating disorder symptoms compared to control participants.
By directly measuring eye movements toward unseen stimuli, the project provides an objective assessment of unconscious visual–motor responses that cannot be captured through self-report or conventional behavioral measures. Thus, digging deeper into biases present in individuals suffering from eating disorders and promising further potential treatment strategies. Indeed, the findings are expected to advance our understanding of early attentional mechanisms involved in eating disorders and to contribute to the identification of objective markers of vulnerability, with potential implications for prevention strategies and future clinical research. The project is highly relevant to the Food Research & Innovation Center, as it contributes to research on eating disorders and unconscious perceptual biases toward food.
This project is being conducted in collaboration with Prof. Simone Munsch, Dr. Leah Gilbert (both attached to the Choices and Mental Health focus area of the Food Research and Innovation Centre (FRIC) at the University of Fribourg and the clinical psychology and psychotherapy group) and Cindy Heinzmann (Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy group) and Junchao Hu (attached Department of Psychology, Visual and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab) ,).
Beyond its scientific objectives, the project fosters new interdisciplinary collaborations and offers multiple opportunities for interdisciplinary master’s theses in Clinical Psychology and Neuroscience and will provide a strong framework for interdisciplinary training and mentoring.