Food intake in response to food-cue exposure. Examining the influence of duration of the cue exposure and trait impulsivity (original) (raw)

Food Cue Reactivity, Obesity, and Impulsivity: Are They Associated?

Current Addiction Reports, 2014

Heightened reactivity to food-associated cues and impulsive responding to these cues may be important contributors to the obesity epidemic. This article reviews the evidence for a role of food cue reactivity and impulsivity in food intake, body mass index, and weight-loss success. Inconsistencies in defining and measuring these constructs create difficulties in interpreting findings; however, evidence does support their role in obesity. The relationship between food cue reactivity and impulsivity may depend on the measurement used, but some studies have demonstrated that interactions between these constructs rather than direct effects are important in accounting for food intake pattern. Thus, multimodal assessment of both constructs is recommended. Future research would benefit from standardized definitions, measures, procedures, and reporting to enhance comparisons across studies. Implications for therapy are discussed and suggestions for further research are provided.

The influence of trait and induced state impulsivity on food intake in normal-weight healthy women

Appetite, 2007

Previous research has linked overeating and overweight/obesity to impulsivity. To find out whether impulsivity causes overeating and hence overweight and obesity, we attempted to prime the concept of impulsivity in healthy participants. In a within-subjects design one sample participated in two conditions. In both conditions participants did a priming task that either hinted subtly at the concept of impulsivity or that was neutral in content. Each time the priming task was followed by a bogus taste test. Trait impulsivity was measured by means of a behavioural task and self-report. Firstly, we hypothesized that participants would eat more during the taste test after they had been primed with the concept “impulsivity” compared to after the control session. Secondly, we expected that a more impulsive personality would predict a heightened food intake. Thirdly, we expected that impulsivity would predict food intake better than restraint. The results showed that both the self-report measure of impulsivity and the behavioural task predicted food intake. Restraint did not significantly predict food intake. Primed impulsivity did not increase food intake, possibly because the priming effect did not last long enough.

The interaction between impulsivity and a varied food environment: its influence on food intake and overweight

International journal of obesity (2005), 2008

The current study tests the influence of two factors, the obesogenic environment and impulsivity, on food intake in primary school children. Our current food environment offers a large variety of cheap and easily available sweet and fatty foods. This obesogenic environment is believed to be a cause of the recent obesity epidemic. Impulsive people are generally less successful at inhibiting prepotent responses and they are reward sensitive. We investigate whether the interaction between an obesogenic environment and an impulsive person leads to overeating. A quasi-experimental 2 (reward sensitive versus not reward sensitive) by 2 (successful response inhibitors versus unsuccessful response inhibitors) by 2 (monotonous versus varied food environment) between-subjects design with caloric intake during a taste test as the main dependent variable. The link between impulsivity and overweight was also examined. 78 healthy primary school children (age: 8-10 years). We measured two aspects o...

The Effect of Pre-exposure to Food Cues on the Eating Behavior of Restrained and Unrestrained Eaters* 1

Appetite, 1997

This study investigated the effect of pre-exposure to two types of food cues (olfactory and cognitive) on food intake by restrained and unrestrained eaters. Subjects were exposed to either no cue, an olfactory cue, a cognitive cue or a combination of the two types of food cues for ten minutes prior to eating. Restrained eaters ate significantly more than did unrestrained eaters after exposure to the food cues. There was no difference in food intake when there was no preexposure to the cues. Although baseline subjective ratings were equivalent for both groups of subjects, after cue pre-exposure, restrained subjects, in keeping with their increased consumption, indicated a significantly greater craving, liking, and desire to eat the cued food (pizza) than did the unrestrained subjects. These findings suggest that restrained eaters are more sensitive and reactive to food cues than are unrestrained eaters. The food cues appeared to generate an appetitive urge to eat in restrained eaters.

Sweet taste liking is associated with impulsive behaviors in humans

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 2014

Evidence from both human and animal studies suggests that sensitivity to rewarding stimuli is positively associated with impulsive behaviors, including both impulsive decision making and inhibitory control. The current study examined associations between the hedonic value of a sweet taste and two forms of impulsivity (impulsive choice and impulsive action) in healthy young adults (N = 100). Participants completed a sweet taste test in which they rated their liking of various sweetness concentrations. Subjects also completed measures of impulsive choice (delay discounting), and impulsive action (go/no-go task). Subjects who discounted more steeply (i.e., greater impulsive choice) liked the high sweetness concentration solutions more. By contrast, sweet liking was not related to impulsive action. These findings indicate that impulsive choice may be associated with heightened sensitivity to the hedonic value of a rewarding stimulus, and that these constructs might share common underlying neurobiological mechanisms.

External eating, impulsivity and attentional bias to food cues

Appetite, 2011

Cognitive and behavioural responses to food reward, such as attentional biases and overeating, have been associated with individual differences in reward-responsiveness and impulsivity. This study investigated relationships between external eating, impulsivity and attentional bias to food cues, assessed using the pictorial visual-probe task. As previously reported, attentional bias correlated positively with external eating. Additional novel findings were: (i) attentional bias for food cues was positively related to trait impulsivity, (ii) attentional bias remained related to attention impulsivity after controlling for external eating. Our findings highlight the relationship between the ability to control impulsive responding and selective attention to food cues. ß

Implicit food odour priming effects on reactivity and inhibitory control towards foods

2020

The food environment can interact with cognitive processing and influence eating behaviour. Our objective was to characterize the impact of implicit olfactory priming on inhibitory control towards food, in groups with different weight status. Ninety-two adults completed a modified Affective Shifting Task: they had to detect target stimuli and ignore distractor stimuli while being primed with non-attentively perceived odours. We measured reactivity and inhibitory control towards food pictures. Priming effects were observed on reactivity: participants with overweight and obesity were slower when primed with pear and pound cake odour respectively. Common inhibitory control patterns toward foods were observed between groups. We suggest that non-attentively perceived food cues influence bottom-up processing by activating distinguished mental representations according to weight status. Also, our data show that cognitive load influences inhibitory control toward foods. Those results contri...

Odors: appetizing or satiating? Development of appetite during odor exposure over time

International Journal of Obesity, 2013

BACKGROUND: Exposure to palatable food odors influences appetite responses, either promoting or inhibiting food intake. Possibly, food odors are appetizing after a short exposure (of circa 1-3 min), but become satiating over time (circa 10-20 min). OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of odor exposure on general appetite and sensory-specific appetite (SSA) over time. DESIGN: In a cross-over study, 21 unrestrained women (age: 18-45 years; BMI: 18.5-25 kg m À 2) were exposed for 20 min to eight different odor types: five food odors, two nonfood odors and no-odor. All odors were distributed in a test room at suprathreshold levels. General appetite, SSA and salivation were measured over time. RESULTS: All food odors significantly increased general appetite and SSA, compared with the no-odor condition. The nonfood odors decreased general appetite. All effects did not change over time during odor exposure. Savory odors increased the appetite for savory foods, but decreased appetite for sweet foods, and vice versa after exposure to sweet odors. Neither food odors nor nonfood odors affected salivation. CONCLUSIONS: Palatable food odors were appetizing during and after odor exposure and did not become satiating over a 20-min period. Food odors had a large impact on SSA and a small impact on general appetite. Moreover, exposure to food odors increased the appetite for congruent foods, but decreased the appetite for incongruent foods. It may be hypothesized that, once the body is prepared for intake of a certain food with a particular macronutrient composition, it is unfavorable to consume foods that are very different from the cued food.

Restrained and nonrestrained eaters' orienting responses to food and nonfood odors

Physiology & Behavior, 1993

Dietary restraint was assessed by Stunkard and Messick's (1985) three-factor eating questionnaire, using the restraint subfactor score only in normal-weight college students (n = 41). The subjects were than assessed for skin conductance orienting responses (ORs) to food and nonfood odors when hungry and sated (after a standard breakfast and after an overnight fast). Subjects also rated their hunger and each odorant for pleasantness on separate 7-point scales. Results indicated that restrained eaters oriented less to odors than did nonrestrained subjects. Food deprivation did not differentially affect the ORs in restrained and nonrestrained eaters. The ORs, however, tended to be decreased in all of subjects who had had breakfast. Finally, nonrestrained subjects rated food and nonfood odors approximately equal in pleasantness, while the restrained eaters rated food odors as more pleasant than the nonfood odors. These results suggest that restrained eaters must certainly process odor stimuli related to foods, but also suggests that orienting to these salient (informative) cues is restricted. Perhaps in defense of the diet, restrained eaters learn methods/responses (cognitive strategies, instructional sets) to block orienting to food related cues such as odors.

Sensory-specific appetite is affected by actively smelled food odors and remains stable over time in normal-weight women

The Journal of nutrition, 2014

Understanding overconsumption starts with knowledge of how separate factors influence our eating behavior. Food cues such as food odors are known for their effect on general appetite and sensory-specific appetite (SSA). Active sniffing rather than passive exposure may induce satiation over time. The objective of this study was to investigate how actively sniffing banana odors affects general appetite, SSA, and subsequent food intake. In a crossover study, 61 women actively smelled cups containing natural banana, artificial banana odor, or water (no odor) for 10 min. Treatment order was randomly assigned as much as possible. General appetite and SSA were monitored by using 100-mm visual analog scales during the 10 min of active sniffing, followed by ad libitum intake of banana milkshake. Results showed that SSA was consistently high (+12 mm) during actively sniffing natural or artificial banana odors, with no decrease in SSA over time. Sniffing both banana odors increased the appetit...