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Relation of obesity to neural activation in response to food commercials.

ABSTRACT: Adolescents view thousands of food commercials annually, but the neural response to food advertising and its association with obesity is largely unknown. This study is the first to examine how neural response to food commercials differs from other stimuli (e.g. non-food commercials and television show) and to explore how this response may differ by weight status. The blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging activation was measured in 30 adolescents ranging from lean to obese in response to food and non-food commercials imbedded in a television show. Adolescents exhibited greater activation in regions implicated in visual processing (e.g. occipital gyrus), attention (e.g. parietal lobes), cognition (e.g. temporal gyrus and posterior cerebellar lobe), movement (e.g. anterior cerebellar cortex), somatosensory response (e.g. postcentral gyrus) and reward [e.g. orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)] during food commercials. Obese participants exhibited less activation during food relative to non-food commercials in neural regions implicated in visual processing (e.g. cuneus), attention (e.g. posterior cerebellar lobe), reward (e.g. ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ACC) and salience detection (e.g. precuneus). Obese participants did exhibit greater activation in a region implicated in semantic control (e.g. medial temporal gyrus). These findings may inform current policy debates regarding the impact of food advertising to minors.

SUBMITTER: Gearhardt AN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4090951 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundFood advertising is a major contributor to obesity, and fast food (FF) restaurants are top advertisers. Research on the impact of food advertising in adolescents is lacking and no prior research has investigated neural predictors of food intake in adolescents. Neural systems implicated in reward could be key to understanding how food advertising drives food intake.ObjectivesTo investigate how neural responses to both unhealthy and healthier FF commercials predict food intake in adolescents.MethodsA cross-sectional sample of 171 adolescents (aged 13-16 y) who ranged from normal weight to obese completed an fMRI paradigm where they viewed unhealthy and healthier FF and nonfood commercials. Adolescents then consumed a meal in a simulated FF restaurant where foods of varying nutritional profiles (unhealthy compared with healthier) were available.ResultsGreater neural activation in reward-related regions (nucleus accumbens, r = 0.29; caudate nucleus, r = 0.27) to unhealthy FF commercials predicted greater total food intake. Greater responses to healthier FF relative to nonfood commercials in regions associated with reward (i.e., nucleus accumbens, r = 0.24), memory (i.e., hippocampus, r = 0.32), and sensorimotor processes (i.e., anterior cerebellum, r = 0.33) predicted greater total food and unhealthier food intake, but not healthier food intake. Lower activation in neural regions associated with visual attention and salience (e.g., precuneus, r = -0.35) to unhealthy relative to healthier FF commercials predicted healthier food intake.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that FF commercials contribute to overeating in adolescents through reward mechanisms. The addition of healthier commercials from FF restaurants is unlikely to encourage healthier food intake, but interventions that reduce the ability of unhealthy FF commercials to capture attention could be beneficial. However, an overall reduction in the amount of FF commercials exposure for adolescents is likely to be the most effective approach.

Project description:Children are vulnerable to adverse effects of food advertising. Food commercials are known to increase hedonic, taste-oriented, and unhealthy food decisions. The current study examined how promoting resilience to food commercials impacted susceptibility to unhealthy food decision-making in children. To promote resilience to food commercials, we utilized the food advertising literacy intervention intended to enhance cognitive skepticism and critical thinking, and decrease positive attitudes toward commercials. Thirty-six children aged 8-12 years were randomly assigned to the food advertising literacy intervention or the control condition. Eighteen children received four brief intervention sessions via video over 1 week period. In each session, children watched six food commercials with interspersed embedded intervention narratives. While watching food commercials and narratives, children were encouraged to speak their thoughts out loud spontaneously ("think-aloud"), which provided children's attitudes toward commercials. Eighteen children in the control condition had four control sessions over 1 week, and watched the same food commercials without intervention narratives while thinking aloud. The first and last sessions were held in the laboratory, and the second and third sessions were held at the children's homes. Susceptibility to unhealthy food decision-making was indicated by the decision weights of taste attributes, taste perception, food choices, ad libitum snacking, and cognitive and affective attitudes toward food commercials. As hypothesized, the intervention successfully decreased susceptibility to unhealthy food decision-making evidenced by reduced decision weights of the taste in food decisions, decreased tasty perception of unhealthy foods, and increased cognitive skepticism and critical thinking toward food commercials. In addition, as children's opinions assimilated to intervention narratives, their cognitive skepticism and critical thinking toward commercials increased. The aforementioned results were not shown in the control condition. However, this brief intervention was not enough to change actual food choices or food consumption. Results of this study suggest that promoting resilience to food commercials by enhancing cognitive skepticism and critical thinking effectively reduced children's susceptibility to unhealthy food-decision making.

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Relation of obesity to neural activation in response to food commercials.

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