title: Food-related Stroop interference in obese and normal-weight individuals: behavioral and electrophysiological indices.
abstract: The primary objective of the present study was to investigate differences in the attentional processing of food-related words in a Stroop task, as assessed by means of behavioral (reaction times) and electrophysiological (P200 and P300 amplitudes) indices, between obese and normal-weight individuals. Results revealed a P200 bias to food-related words in obese participants, which was not seen in normal-weight participants. This indicates that, in an early, automatic stage of information processing, obese participants already tend to engage more attention towards food-related stimuli than to neutral stimuli. With respect to reaction times and P300 scores, as alleged indices of more conscious maintained attention, a general food-related bias was observed, with no between-group differences. Further, in the obese group, significant positive correlations were observed between the food-related reaction time bias, food craving, and external eating, whereas in the normal-weight group, food craving scores correlated positively with P200/P300 amplitude biases. It can be concluded that obese individuals display an enhanced automatic, preconscious attentional processing of food-related stimuli, and this can be regarded as an initial expression of a greater responsiveness to food cues. In the current food-abundant environment, such a heightened food cue-responsiveness might contribute substantially to the tendency to overeat.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. nijs@fsw.eur.nl
authors.forename: Ilse M T
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Nijs
authors.forename: Ingmar H A
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Franken
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Muris
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003463:Cues; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009765:Obesity / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D057190:Stroop Test; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires