Previous research has suggested that women’s food intake is influenced by increases in progesterone, most notably during the post-ovulatory period. Additionally, body mass index and high-density foods play a contributing role in the amount of attention given to food. Although research has primarily focused on women’s self-reported ratings across the menstrual cycle, whether women’s attention to food is influenced by progesterone levels, menstrual status, and BMI has been unexplored. The current study investigated women’s visual attention to high and low-caloric food items. Across two lab visits, women’s progesterone levels were tracked while they completed an eye-tracking task. The results demonstrated that high-caloric foods were viewed longer irrespective of BMI, and there was tentative support for women’s progesterone influencing their first fixation durations to high-caloric foods. Overall, the findings suggest that high caloric foods were visually salient, which may be indicative of how humans allocate attention to food high in energy density, and it suggests that women’s early attentional processes are partly influenced by sex hormones (i.e., progesterone).

先前的研究表明，妇女的食物摄入量受孕酮增加的影响，最明显的是在排卵后。此外，体重指数和高密度食品在对食品的关注程度中也起着重要作用。尽管研究主要集中在妇女在月经周期中的自我报告评分，但尚未探讨妇女对食物的关注是否受孕激素水平，月经状况和BMI的影响。当前的研究调查了妇女对高热量和低热量食品的视觉关注。在两次实验室访问中，她们在完成眼动追踪任务时跟踪了妇女的孕酮水平。结果表明，无论BMI为何，高热量食物的观看时间都更长，对妇女的孕酮影响她们第一次固定高热量食物的持续时间提供了暂定支持。总的来说，这些发现表明高热量食物在视觉上很显眼，这可能表明人类如何将注意力分配到能量密度高的食物上，并且表明女性的早期注意过程部分受到性激素（即孕激素）的影响。