Also Included In: Public Health; Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 31 Jul 2013 - 14:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Lunch with company reduces cognitive control, may increase social harmony
Lunch at a restaurant with friends reduces cognitive control more than lunch eaten alone at a desk does, according to research published July 31 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Werner Sommer from the Humboldt University at Berlin, Germany, and colleagues from other institutions.
Participants in the study either ate a solitary meal alone at their desk in a restricted amount of time, or took a short walk to a restaurant for an hour-long lunch with a friend. All meals were identical in the kind and amounts of food consumed. After the meal, people who had a restaurant lunch were calmer and less wakeful than those who ate at their desks. They also fared more poorly on performance tests of cognitive control, and neurophysiological measurements indicated decreased cognitive control of performance and error monitoring processes. Since the meals differed in many ways including the presence of a friend, environment and lack of time restrictions, the authors explain "It is impossible to specify at this point, which of the variables above are crucial for the effects observed in our study."
They add, "Reduced cognitive control is a disadvantage when close self-monitoring of performance and detailed attention to errors is required, such as in numerical processing. In other situations, an attenuation of cognitive control may be advantageous, such as when social harmony or creativity is desired."
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.Visit our psychology / psychiatry section for the latest news on this subject.
How about Lunch? Consequences of the Meal Context on Cognition and Emotion.. PLoS ONE 8(7): e70314. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070314
Authors: Sommer W, Stürmer B, Shmuilovich O, Martin-Loeches M, Schacht A
This research was supported by the Wolfgang-Köhler-Zentrum zur Erforschung von Konflikten in Intelligenten Systemen. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
PLOS ONE
Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:MLA
1 Aug. 2013.
Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.
'Lunch with company reduces cognitive control, may increase social harmony'
Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.
If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.
All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam). We reserve the right to amend opinions where we deem necessary.
Contact Our News Editors
For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.
Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:
Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.
No comments:
Post a Comment