Abstract
Brain regions involved in the reappraisal of tasty but unhealthy foods are of special interest for the development of new therapeutic interventions for obesity, such as non-invasive brain stimulation or neurofeedback. Here, we visually presented food items (i.e., high/low caloric) to obese and lean individuals during electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings, while they either admitted or regulated their food desire. During admitting the desire for low and high calorie foods, obese as well as lean individuals showed higher activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), whereas the right frontal operculum was involved in the reappraisal of the same foods, suggesting interplay between executive control and gustatory regions. Only in lean participants, we found an interaction between calorie content and the regulate/admit conditions in bilateral anterior insular cortices, suggesting that the anterior insula, assumed to primarily host gustatory processes, also underpins higher cognitive processes involved in food choices, such as evaluating the foods’ calorie content for its reappraisal.
Highlights
Obesity is a major health burden and dramatically climbing incidence rates, especially in rapidly developing countries like China or India, lead to a demand on developing new therapeutic strategies (Roman et al, 2014)
Comparing the regulate to the admit condition, we identified the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), pre-supplementary motor area and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG); regions that are well known to underpin top-down control of craving, inhibition of learned associations and prepotent responses
We found higher self-rating scores for the ADMIT as compared to the REGULATE condition for lean and obese participants together, across high and low calorie foods (ANOVA, p < 0.0001)
Summary
Obesity is a major health burden and dramatically climbing incidence rates, especially in rapidly developing countries like China or India, lead to a demand on developing new therapeutic strategies (Roman et al, 2014). The majority of participants start regaining weight directly after the program has ended. Based on these experiences, new therapeutic strategies started combining dieting and physical activity with regular psychological interventions to strengthen motivation and volition (Looney and Raynor, 2013; Ausburn et al, 2014). New therapeutic strategies started combining dieting and physical activity with regular psychological interventions to strengthen motivation and volition (Looney and Raynor, 2013; Ausburn et al, 2014) This combination seems effective for stabilizing the program-associated weight-loss beyond the program’s duration, but the influences on body weight and metabolism are per se small. Establishing new programs that, at the same time, produce profound weight loss and long-term body-weight stability seem generally difficult because the neuronal mechanisms driving and sustaining overeating are still not well understood
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