Abstract
The present study investigated whether the representation of subjective preferences in the event-related potential is manipulable through selective devaluation, i.e., the consumption of a specific food item until satiety. Thirty-four participants completed a gambling task in which they chose between virtual doors to find one of three snack items, representing a high, medium, or low preference outcome as defined by individual desire-to-eat ratings. In one of two test sessions, they underwent selective devaluation of the high preference outcome. In the other, they completed the task on an empty stomach. Consistent with previous findings, averaged across sessions, amplitudes were increased for more preferred rewards in the time windows of P2, late FRN, and P300. As hypothesised, we also found a selective devaluation effect for the high preference outcome in the P300 time window, reflected in a decrease in amplitude. The present results provide evidence for modulations of reward processing not only by individual factors, such as subjective preferences, but also by the current motivational state. Importantly, the present data suggest that selective devaluation effects in the P300 may be a promising tool to further characterise altered valuation of food rewards in the context of eating disorders and obesity.
Highlights
The present study investigated whether the representation of subjective preferences in the event-related potential is manipulable through selective devaluation, i.e., the consumption of a specific food item until satiety
Because our main interest lay in the selective devaluation effect, we investigated only this triple interaction further
Post-hoc t-tests yielded that all outcome types differed significantly from one another, all p < 0.001, with the highest rating for the high preference outcome (HPO), followed by the medium preference outcome (MPO) and low preference outcome (LPO), reflecting the intended preference structure
Summary
The present study investigated whether the representation of subjective preferences in the event-related potential is manipulable through selective devaluation, i.e., the consumption of a specific food item until satiety. The negativity is more pronounced for smaller compared to larger amounts of monetary rewards (Holroyd et al, 2004; Kreussel et al, 2012; Wu & Zhou, 2009), and the amplitude difference between positive and negative outcomes is larger with higher (potential) outcomes (Bellebaum, Polezzi, & Daum, 2010b) Along these lines, the FRN is thought to reflect dopaminergic activity, coding a reward prediction error (Pfabigan et al, 2011; Sambrook & Goslin, 2015; Wu & Zhou, 2009). The P300 shows relatively consistent effects of outcome probability, with more positive P300 amplitudes for unexpected compared to expected outcomes (Bellebaum & Daum, 2008; Hajcak et al, 2005; Hajcak et al, 2007; Wu & Zhou, 2009; and see Kobza et al, 2011; Kreussel et al, 2012)
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