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Neural correlates underlying preference changes induced by food Go/No-Go training
Qian Wu1, Haishuo Xia1, Grant S Shields2
1Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China.
Appetite
|May 7, 2023
Summary
Food go/no-go training effectively alters food preferences, leading individuals to choose more "go" foods over "no-go" foods. Neural activity in attention networks and prefrontal regions underlies these learned preference changes.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Food go/no-go training can modify food choices and body weight.
- Neural mechanisms driving these preference changes remain underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the neural pathways affected by food go/no-go training.
- Examine how action (go) or inaction (no-go) toward foods influences neural activity and subsequent preferences.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to scan 86 female participants.
- A binary food choice task was employed within a food go/no-go training paradigm.
- Neural activity and functional connectivity were analyzed in relation to preference shifts.
Main Results:
- Food go/no-go training successfully shifted participants' preferences, increasing consumption of "go" foods.
- Preference changes correlated inversely with activity in frontoparietal and salience networks during go vs. no-go choices.
- Connectivity from the inferior parietal lobule to prefrontal areas (pre-SMA, dlPFC, dACC) was linked to preference alterations.
Conclusions:
- Food go/no-go training reliably modifies individual food preferences.
- Neural pathways involving selective attention and prefrontal regions appear to mediate these training-induced preference changes.
- Further research with tasks like passive viewing is needed to confirm these neural mechanisms.
