Go/no-go training affects frontal midline theta and mu oscillations to passively observed food stimuli

Abstract

The mere perception of high-calorie food items can trigger strong action tendencies towards these foods. Go/no-go training has successfully been applied to reduce such action tendencies. This study investigated the electrophysiological mechanisms that may underlie the beneficial effects of go/no-go training on food consumption. EEG was measured while 19 participants passively observed pictures of food and non-food items, both before and after the go/no-go training. During training, 50% of the food and non-food items were consistently paired with a go/no-go response. After training, food items that had been associated with a response induced larger mu desynchronization at electrodes over sensorimotor regions, whereas food items that had been associated with withholding from responding induced larger increases in theta power at frontal midline electrodes. These findings suggest that the exerted cognitive control during go/no-go training with attractive food stimuli may become associated with these stimuli and signal the required level of control during subsequent encounters.

No evidence of calorie‐related modulation of N2 in food‐related Go/No‐Go training: A preregistered ERP study

“…Given that the frontal midline theta power is typically associated with response control and conflict detection (Brier et al, 2010;Cavanagh & Frank, 2014), the obtained theta rhythm is likely to reflect the same online regulation process of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as the earlier found N2 ERP component (Cavanagh & Frank, 2014). This indicates that food Go/No-Go training leads to more efficient activation of response inhibition (van de Vijver et al, 2018). However, theta oscillations in this study were recorded during passive viewing of the food images and not during the completion of the Go/No-Go task, thus not giving conclusive evidence of the processes happening during the training itself.…”

“…Therefore, we conducted the present preregistered study (find the pre-registration here: https ://osf.io/2j8vt/ ) to examine changes in the N2 amplitude, over the course of food-related Go/No-Go inhibition training, to better understand through which mechanisms the training influences eating behavior. Investigating the change in N2 amplitude over the course of the training revealed whether the N2 response enhanced as a result of the training, as indirectly suggested by the recent oscillation findings van de Vijver et al (2018). Moreover, we examined the influence of Go/No-Go training on immediate calorie intake by using a lab-based measure of calorie intake in addition to a food diary.…”

“…However, they do not give insights into the neural changes throughout the course of a Go/No-Go intervention. Fortunately, in another recent study by van de Vijver, van Schie, Veling, van Dooren, and Holland (2018), the neural effects of Go/No-Go training on response inhibition (i.e., food consumption) were measured more directly. In their study, participants were asked to passively view pictures of food and nonfood items followed by a food-related Go/No-Go training, where the food/non food items were consistently paired with Go/No-Go response.…”

No evidence of calorie-related modulation of N2 in food-related Go/No-Go training: a pre-registered ERP study

“…Given that frontal midline theta power is typically associated with response control and conflict detection (Brier et al, 2010;Cavanagh & Frank, 2014), the obtained theta rhythm is likely to reflect the same online regulation process of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as the earlier found N2 ERP component (Cavanagh & Frank, 2014). This indicates that food Go/No-Go training leads to more efficient activation of response inhibition (van de Vijver et al, 2018). However, theta oscillations in this study were recorded during passive viewing of the food images and not during the completion of the Go/No-Go task, thus not giving conclusive evidence of the processes happening during the training itself.…”

“…Fortunately, in another recent study by van de Vijver, van Schie, Veling, van Dooren, and Holland (2018), the neural effects of Go/No-Go training on response inhibition (i.e., food consumption) were measured more directly. In their study, participants were asked to passively view pictures of food and non-food items followed by a food-related Go/No-Go training, where the food/non-food items were consistently paired with Go/No-Go response.…”