TY - JOUR

T1 - Beating uncontrolled eating

T2 - Training inhibitory control to reduce food intake and food cue sensitivity

AU - Oomen, Danna

AU - Grol, Maud

AU - Spronk, Desiree

AU - Booth, Charlotte

AU - Fox, Elaine

N1 - Funding Information: This research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme ( FP7/2007–2013 )/ERC grant agreement no: [ 324176 ] to EF. Funding sources had no involvement in study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the report, nor in the decision making to submit the article for publication. The authors declare no conflict of interest. Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Elsevier Ltd

PY - 2018/12/1

Y1 - 2018/12/1

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Cognitive training

KW - Food cue sensitivity

KW - go/no-go

KW - Overeating

KW - Response inhibition

KW - Self-control

KW - Psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053321225&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.appet.2018.09.007

DO - 10.1016/j.appet.2018.09.007

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 30213747

AN - SCOPUS:85053321225

VL - 131

SP - 73

EP - 83

JO - Appetite

JF - Appetite

SN - 0195-6663

ER -