Food go/no-go training changes food wanting in women: Behavioral, brain activity, and choice outcomes

Food evaluations can be altered by associating mere action versus inaction with these foods. In this study, we examined how food go/no-go training influences food wanting and its brain correlates using functional magnetic resonance imaging in a sample of women (N = 85). During the training session, participants learned to consistently respond to go foods while suppressing responses to no-go foods. Food wanting was assessed through a rating task in which participants reported how much they wanted to eat the go and no-go foods before and after training. The results revealed that wanting ratings for no-go foods declined significantly after training. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data indicated that the devaluation effect was associated with lower blood-oxygen-level-dependent responses in the middle frontal, middle occipital, and inferior occipital gyri. Exploratory dynamic causal modelling was used to characterize post-training modulation of effective connectivity among these three regions, with the strongest effects involving bidirectional middle frontal gyrus-inferior occipital gyrus connectivity. Statistical mediation analysis suggested an indirect association between the inferior occipital gyrus-to-middle frontal gyrus modulatory effect and post-training food choice through food wanting, although this same-session analysis involved closely related preference readouts and does not establish temporal or causal mediation. Overall, the findings suggest that simply responding or not responding to certain foods can alter subjective food evaluation, and that these evaluation changes may be related to immediate post-training food choice.