Greater Food-Related Stroop Interference Following Behavioral Weight Loss Intervention.
OBJECTIVE
Individuals who have successfully lost and maintained weight have slower reaction times on food-related Stroop tasks, indicating greater cognitive interference to food stimuli compared to obese and normal weight individuals. It remains unclear whether this interference is a preexisting characteristic of weight loss maintainers or if food-interference changes in obese individuals as they lose weight.


METHODS
To examine potential changes in food-related interference, a food-Stroop paradigm was used to measure responses to food versus non-food words in 13 obese women before and after a 12-week behavioral weight loss program.


RESULTS
Participants achieved a mean weight loss of 5.12 kg through the behavioral weight loss program. Their reaction time to food words became significantly slower (p<0.001) and they made significantly more errors (p<0.01) following treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that through behavioral weight loss treatment obese individuals experience increased interference toward food words, which may reflect increased salience of food-related cues. Future research is needed to determine whether increases in interference are related to better weight loss and maintenance.
Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center, Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, The Miriam Hospital and Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, USA.
Kathryn E
KE
Demos
Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center, Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, The Miriam Hospital and Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, USA.
Jeanne M
JM
McCaffery
Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center, Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, The Miriam Hospital and Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, USA.
Sara A
SA
Cournoyer
Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center, Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, The Miriam Hospital and Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, USA.
Caroline A
CA
Wunsch
Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center, Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, The Miriam Hospital and Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, USA.
Rena R
RR
Wing
Food-stroop paradigm; SWLM; Weight loss intervention