There are many things at play when it comes to eating behavior. A new study has found that both the conscious and unconscious mind influences the foods we crave.

谈到饮食行为，有许多因素在起作用。一项新的研究发现，有意识和无意识都会影响我们渴望的食物。

The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, found visual cues have a bearing on our eating patterns, irrespective of whether we are aware of it or not.

这项发表在《PLoS ONE》杂志上的研究发现，视觉线索对我们的饮食模式有影响，无论我们是否意识到这一点。

Led by researchers from the Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan, the study found unconscious neural processes may have a significant influence on our food cravings, which might make controlling our eating behavior a difficult task.

由日本大坂市立大学的研究人员领导的这项研究发现，无意识的神经过程可能对我们的食物渴望有重大影响，这可能会使控制我们的饮食行为变得更加艰难。

“In this study, we aimed to investigate both the conscious and unconscious decision-making processes related to eating behavior, and to examine whether an interaction related to eating behavior exists between conscious and unconscious neural processes,” researchers wrote.

研究人员写道：“在这项研究中，我们的目的，是调查与饮食行为有关的有意识和无意识决策过程，并研究与饮食行为有关的有意识和无意识神经过程之间，是否存在相互作用。”

There is a region in the brain’s frontal lobe called the inferior frontal gyrus that controls eating behavior, as per Earth.com. In this study, it was seen that the neural response to food stimuli in this region was dependent on how the images were presented- consciously or unconsciously.

据地球网报道，大脑额叶中有一个区域叫做额下回，它控制着饮食行为。在这项研究中，我们发现这一区域对食物刺激的神经反应，取决于图像的呈现方式——有意识或无意识。

According to the results, eating behavior cannot be understood in isolation without factoring in both unconscious and conscious neural processes.

根据研究结果，如果不考虑无意识和有意识的神经过程，就不能孤立地理解饮食行为。

The authors of the study are hopeful that their study will shine a light on better therapies for treating eating disorders and diseases.

这项研究的作者希望，他们的研究能为治疗饮食失调和疾病提供更好的治疗方法。

“Obesity is a serious health problem in modern society. Considering the fact that the outcomes of treatments targeting appetitive behavior are suboptimal, one potential reason proposed for these poor outcomes is that appetitive behavior is driven more by unconscious decision-making processes than by the conscious ones targeted by traditional behavioral treatments,” researchers explained.

“肥胖是现代社会中一个严重的健康问题。考虑到针对食欲行为的治疗结果并不理想，而其潜在原因是，食欲行为更多地是由无意识决策过程驱动的，而不是传统行为治疗所针对的有意识决策过程。”研究人员解释说。

“If we can learn more in future research about how eating behavior is controlled by unconscious neural processes, we can combine that understanding with our current knowledge of conscious neural processes to potentially develop more effective methods for regulating eating behavior,” said Professor Takahiro Yoshikawa, who led the research team.

领导该研究小组的吉川隆弘教授说：“如果我们能在未来的研究中，更多地了解无意识神经过程是如何控制饮食行为的，我们就可以将这种理解，与我们目前对有意识神经过程的了解结合起来，从而有可能开发出更有效的方法来调节饮食行为。”