Skip to content
Lab Notes: How your brain chooses your next snack episode artwork

Nov 4, 2025 13 min

Lab Notes: How your brain chooses your next snack

from The Science Show Hosted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation

It's mid-afternoon and time for a treat! Do you choose a healthy piece of fruit, or do you head straight for the chocolate? It turns out that well before we consciously decide what we're going to eat, our brain has already weighed up our choices — and in a fraction of a second. Now a new study shows which food attributes are processed by our brain faster than others, and how this might influence our dietary decisions. You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more. Get in touch with us: [email protected] Featuring: Violet Chae, PhD student at the University of Melbourne More information: Characterising the neural time-courses of food attribute representations This episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Menang Noongar people.

Episode details come from the podcast's RSS feed.

Embed this episode

Ready to play

Lab Notes: How your brain chooses your next snack

0:00 13:53

No transcript yet.

Requests help us decide what to transcribe next.

Frequently asked questions

How long is this episode of The Science Show?

This episode is 13 minutes long.

When was this The Science Show episode published?

This episode was published on November 4, 2025.

Can I download this The Science Show episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.