ERP and oscillatory differences in overweight/obese and normal-weight adolescents in response to food stimuli

Abstract

Background: Findings are mixed regarding the association of electroencephalographic (EEG) attentional bias measures and body weight, with few studies measuring food craving or intake and no study reporting oscillatory measures. Methods: EEG data were collected while 28 satiated adolescents (14 overweight/obese) viewed pictures of neutral, lowcalorie food, and high-calorie food stimuli and rated their desire to eat, before having access to high-calorie snacks. Results: Unlike normal-weight adolescents, overweight/obese participants showed similar P300 amplitudes for high-and low-calorie food, and strongest event-related alpha band desynchronization for low-calorie stimuli. P300 amplitudes and state craving for low-calorie food furthermore predicted snack intake in this group. Conclusions: The current research focus in overweight/obesity might need to be extended to include low-calorie food. While all participants showed an attentional bias for high-calorie food, it was the processing of low-calorie food which distinguished the two weight groups on measures of neural activity and which was associated with snack food intake in the overweight/obese group.

A Pilot Event-Related Potentials Study on Mechanisms Underlying a tDCS-Enhanced Food-Specific Response Inhibition Task for Patients With Binge Eating Disorder

“…This is somewhat earlier than what has been found in previous studies (i.e. Lapenta et al, 2014;Biehl et al, 2020;Chami et al, 2020), but nevertheless within the normal range (see Luck, 2014).…”

“…Another ERP study conducted with a sample of adolescents showed that only those participants with healthy weight had significantly higher P3 amplitudes towards high-calorie food, as opposed to low-calorie food or neutral items. These effects were not found among participants with overweight/obesity (Biehl et al, 2020).…”

“…For the N2 analyses, the stimulus locked epochs were used and consisted of the average of the three frontocentral sites: Cz, Fz, Fcz (Espinet et al, 2012). We determined a time window ranging from 100 to 250 ms after stimulus onset which is in line with previous studies (Leehr et al, 2018;Biehl et al, 2020;Chami et al, 2020). The peaks of the ERP, as well as the highest N2 activity located frontocentral/posterior (Cz), further matched this time window.…”

“…Meanwhile, P3b is more enhanced within parietal electrodes and has been shown to be relevant in motivating attention (Chami et al, 2019). More specifically, it is associated with attentional biases towards food given its rewarding nature across different weight and age groups (Nijs et al, 2008;Hill et al, 2013;Hofmann et al, 2015;Biehl et al, 2020;İceta et al, 2020). During the antisaccade task, it is expected that P3 amplitude should be increased during behaviour inhibition (correct saccades) due to increased inhibitory control, or else during behaviour disinhibition (erroneous saccades) due to the attention-grabbing properties of food.…”

A Pictorial Dot Probe Task to Assess Food-Related Attentional Bias in Youth With and Without Obesity: Overview of Indices and Evaluation of Their Reliability

“…Neurophysiological studies, using brain imaging techniques or eye tracking procedures, indeed support the prediction that individuals with overweight and obesity show stronger attentional biases toward food than individuals with healthy weight, in adults (Hendrikse et al, 2015) and youth (van Meer et al, 2016;Biehl et al, 2020) alike. Evidence stemming from behavioral paradigms, however, is equivocal and shows small to moderate effect sizes at best, especially in youth populations (van Meer et al, 2016;Brand et al, 2020;Hagan et al, 2020;Kemps et al, 2020;Hardman et al, 2021).…”