Eating less or more - Mindset induced changes in neural correlates of pre-meal planning

Obesity develops due to an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. Besides the decision about what to eat, daily energy intake might be even more dependent on the decision about the portion size to be consumed. For decisions between different foods, attentional focus is considered to play a key role in the choice selection. In the current study, we investigated the attentional modulation of portion size selection during pre-meal planning. We designed a functional magnetic resonance task in which healthy participants were directed to adopt different mindsets while selecting their portion size for lunch. Compared with a free choice condition, participants reduced their portion sizes when considering eating for health or pleasure, which was accompanied by increased activity in left prefrontal cortex and left orbitofrontal cortex, respectively. When planning to be full until dinner, participants selected larger portion sizes and showed a trend for increased activity in left insula. These results provide first evidence that also the cognitive process of pre-meal planning is influenced by the attentional focus at the time of choice, which could provide an opportunity for influencing the control of meal size selection by mindset manipulation.