Reduction in sugar drink valuation and consumption with gamified executive control training

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Behavioral Science
• Nutritional Psychology

Background:

• Overvaluation of palatable, high-energy food cues contributes to unhealthy eating and obesity.
• Reducing the desirability of unhealthy foods is a key strategy for improving dietary habits.
• Cognitive mechanisms linking action control to value perception offer novel intervention targets.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the efficacy of an online cognitive training intervention in reducing sugary drink palatability and consumption.
• To investigate the action-to-valuation mechanism through repeated inhibition of motor responses to food cues.
• To explore the persistence of intervention effects on food valuation and consumption.

Main Methods:

• A double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized intervention trial.
• Online cognitive training (5–20 days) using Go/NoGo and attentional bias modification tasks.
• Two conditions: consistent (100%) and inconsistent (50%) mapping of motor inhibition to sugary drink cues.

Main Results:

• Consistent mapping significantly decreased sugary drink valuation (-27.6%) compared to inconsistent mapping (-19%).
• Consistent mapping increased the valuation of associated neutral items (water) more than inconsistent mapping (+11% vs. +4.2%).
• Self-reported sugary drink consumption reductions were similar across both conditions, suggesting a dose-independent effect on intake.

Conclusions:

• Response inhibition training robustly devalues palatable food cues, supporting the action-to-valuation mechanism.
• The effect of training on food valuation may persist for at least one month.
• The relationship between devaluation effects and actual consumption of target items may not be linear.