These results show that overweight children find food more reinforcing than do nonoverweight children. This individual difference was replicated in different experiments using different types of foods and food alternatives. These studies provide support for studying food reinforcement as a factor associated with overweight and obesity.

Background:Sedentary activities, such as watching television, may disrupt habituation to food cues, thereby increasing motivation to eat and energy intake. Objective: These experiments were designed to examine the effect of television watching on habituation of ingestive behavior in children. Design: In experiment 1, all children worked for access to cheeseburgers in trials 1-7 (habituating stimulus). In trials 8 -10, children in the control group continued to work for cheeseburgers without any dishabituating stimuli, whereas children in the other groups received either a novel food (French fries) or television as dishabituating stimuli. Responding for food and amount of food eaten were measured. In experiment 2, all children had access to 1000 kcal of a preferred snack food. One group watched a continuous television show, and the control groups either watched no television or watched a repeated segment of a television show, which controls for the television stimulus but requires reduced allocation of attention. Results: In experiment 1, both the novel food and the television watching groups reinstated responding for food (P ҃ 0.009) and increased the amount of energy earned (P ҃ 0.018) above the level of the control subjects. In experiment 2, the continuous television group spent more time eating (P 0.0001) and consumed more energy than the no television and the repeated segment groups (P ҃ 0.007). Conclusion: These experiments show that television watching can dishabituate eating or disrupt the development of habituation, which may provide a mechanism for increased energy intake associated with watching television.Am J Clin Nutr 2007;85:355-61.

Objective-The purpose of these studies was to test the hypothesis that dietary variety decreases the rate of habituation and increases energy intake in children.Design-In Experiment 1, salivation in response to the same or a variety of food cues was measured followed by consumption of the study food(s). In Experiment 2, children responded in a computer task to earn points for the same or a variety of low or high energy density foods, which were then consumed.Main Outcome Measures-Salivation, number of responses, and energy intake were measured.Results-Participants in the same groups habituated faster than those in the variety groups (p < . 05), and in Experiment 2, the effect of variety was independent of energy density. Participants in the variety groups also consumed more energy than those in the same groups in both experiments (p < . 05). Conclusions-Dietary variety disrupted habituation and increased energy intake in children.In addition, the response to dietary variety was independent of energy density, suggesting that increasing variety of low energy density foods may increase consumption.Keywords dietary variety; obesity; ingestive behavior; sensory specific satiety; energy density Habituation is a ubiquitous characteristic of the nervous system that has been used to understand behavioral and physiological responding for food (Epstein, Rodefer, Wisniewski, & Caggiula, 1992;Groves & Thompson, 1970;Romero & Polich, 1996). Repeated exposure to the same food stimulus leads to decreased responding (Groves & Thompson, 1970), and exposure to a novel stimulus will restore responding to the novel and the previously habituated stimulus (Epstein, Rodeter, et al., 1992;Swithers, 1995;Swithers & Martinson, 1998; SwithersMulvey, Miller, & Hall, 1991;. Slower habituation and greater recovery is associated with increased energy consumption . Thus, exposure to a variety of foods during a meal may slow down the rate of habituation and, in turn, increase energy consumption (Epstein & Paluch, 1997;Myers Ernst & Epstein, 2002).A consistent body of research has shown that people consume more energy when given a variety of food than when given the same food (Clifton, Burton, & Sharp, 1987;Rolls et al., 1981;Rolls, van Duijvenvoorde, & Rolls, 1984) even when the source of Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Leonard H. Epstein, 3435 Main Street, G56 Farber Hall, Buffalo, NY 14214. E-mail: lhenet@buffalo.edu. Jennifer L. Temple and Leonard H. Epstein contributed to the study design and data analysis and assumed major responsibility for writing and revising multiple drafts of the manuscript, with the other authors contributing to the revisions. Leonard H. Epstein is a consultant to Kraft foods. The other authors do not have any potential conflict of interests. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptHealth Psychol. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2008 April 9. Published in final edited form as:Health Psychol. 2008 January ; 27(1 Suppl): S10-S19. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-P...

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We have shown that physiological and behavioral responses habituate to food stimuli and recover when novel stimuli are presented. In addition, physiological responses in obese adults habituate slower to repeated food stimuli than those in non-obese individuals, which is related to greater energy intake. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that instrumental responding in overweight children habituates slower to food cues than in their non-overweight peers. Children were provided the opportunity to work for access to cheeseburger for 10 2-min trials, followed by French fries for 3 2-min trials. Results showed that children who had a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 85th BMI percentile (at risk for overweight; n=17) habituated slower than those with a BMI percentile less than the 85th BMI percentile (non-overweight; n=17). Response recovery to French fries did not differ between groups. Overweight children consumed significantly more grams of food and more energy than non-overweight children. When taken together, these data show that habituation may be an important individual difference characteristic that differentiates overweight from non-overweight children. Implications of this for prevention and treatment of obesity are discussed.