Beating uncontrolled eating: Training inhibitory control to reduce food intake and food cue sensitivity

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Danna Oomen
  • Maud Grol
  • Desiree Spronk
  • Charlotte Booth
  • Elaine Fox

In our food-rich environment we must constantly resist appealing food in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Previous studies have found that food-specific inhibition training can produce changes in eating behaviour, such as a reduction in snack consumption. However, the mechanisms that drive the effect of inhibition training on eating behaviour remain unknown. Identifying the mechanism underlying food-specific inhibition training could lead to more targeted training interventions increasing the potential efficacy of such interventions. In the current study, we investigated directly whether training-induced effects on inhibitory control might underlie the predicted change in eating behaviour. Healthy individuals who scored high on uncontrolled eating were randomly assigned to receive six online training sessions over six consecutive days of either food-specific response inhibition training (active group; n = 21) or response inhibition training without food stimuli (control group; n = 20). We measured pre- and post-training inhibitory control in the context of food and food cue sensitivity, as well as food consumption in a bogus taste test. As expected, food-specific inhibition training decreased snack consumption in the bogus taste test relative to control training. However, the active training did not improve inhibitory control towards food, nor did it reduce food cue sensitivity above and beyond the control training. Future studies are needed to investigate the potential underlying mechanism of food-specific inhibition training, as it remains unclear what drives the reliable effect on eating behaviour.

Original languageEnglish
JournalAppetite
Volume131
Pages (from-to)73-83
Number of pages11
ISSN0195-6663
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.12.2018
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd

    Research areas

  • Cognitive training, Food cue sensitivity, go/no-go, Overeating, Response inhibition, Self-control
  • Psychology

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. In the name of God and Christianity
  2. Acting in the Name of Others
  3. Decentralized control of assembly processes driven by Gentelligent® Parts
  4. Primary source regions of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) measured in the Arctic
  5. Algorithmen? Nein, danke!
  6. Landscape-scale analysis of cropping system effects on soil quality in a context of crop-livestock farming
  7. Cognitive load and science text comprehension
  8. Two Mediterranean annuals feature high within-population trait variability and respond differently to a precipitation gradient
  9. Congruence is not everything
  10. Maize rhizosphere priming: field estimates using 13C natural abundance
  11. Interdependence of Saccadic and Fixational Fluctuations
  12. Wavelet characterizations for anisotropic Besov spaces
  13. Gender Matters in Language and Economic Behaviour
  14. The impact of supervisory board composition on CSR reporting
  15. Von "cool" zu Klärung
  16. National ecosystem restoration pledges are mismatched with social-ecological enabling conditions
  17. The impact of enactive exploration on intrinsic motivation, strategy, and performance in electronic search
  18. Tourists’ Weather Perceptions and Weather Related Behavior
  19. Do protected areas networks ensure the supply of ecosystem services? Spatial patterns of two nature reserve systems in semi-arid Spain
  20. Doing Commons
  21. Use of Chemotaxonomy To Study the Influence of Benzalkonium Chloride on Bacterial Populations in Biodegradation Testing
  22. Intergraphem
  23. Alors on danse
  24. Learning in participatory environmental governance – its antecedents and effects. Findings from a case survey meta-analysis
  25. Exporttätigkeit und Firmengröße
  26. Reconceptualizing Plural Sourcing
  27. The sources of entrepreneurial activity, ed. by Gary D. Libecap