title: Cognitive control over visual food cue saliency is greater in reduced-overweight/obese but not in weight relapsed women: An EEG study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Poor weight management may relate to a reduction in neurobehavioural control over food intake and heightened reactivity of the brain's neural reward pathways. Here we explore the neurophysiology of food-related visual cue processing in weight reduced and weight relapsed women by assessing differences in cortical arousal and attentional processing using a food-Stroop paradigm.
  
  
  METHODS
  51 women were recruited into 4 groups: reduced-weight participants (RED, n=14) compared to BMI matched low-weight controls (LW-CTL, n=18); and weight relapsed participants (REL, n=10) compared to BMI matched high-weight controls (HW-CTL, n=9). Eating behaviour and body image questionnaires were completed. Two Stroop tasks (one containing food images, the other containing neutral images) were completed with record of electroencephalography (EEG).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Differences in cortical arousal were found in RED versus LW-CTL women, and were seen during food task execution only. Compared to their controls, RED women exhibited lower relative delta band power (p=0.01) and higher relative beta band power (p=0.01) over the right frontal cortex (F4). Within the RED group, delta band oscillations correlated positively with self-reported habitual fat intake and with body shape dissatisfaction.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As compared to women matched for phenotype but with no history of weight reduction, reduced-overweight/obese women show increased neurobehavioural control over external food cues and the inhibition of reward-orientated feeding responses. Insight into these self-regulatory mechanisms which attenuate food cue saliency may aid in the development of cognitive remediation therapies which facilitate long-term weight loss.
authors.affiliation: Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Newlands, 7725, South Africa. Electronic address: davidjohnhume@gmail.com.
authors.forename: David John
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Hume
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Observatory, 7925, South Africa. Electronic address: howellsfleur@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Fleur Margaret
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Howells
authors.affiliation: Bioelectronics & Neuroscience group, The MARCS Institute, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia. Electronic address: d.karpul@uws.edu.au.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Karpul
authors.affiliation: Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Newlands, 7725, South Africa. Electronic address: laurie.rauch@uct.ac.za.
authors.forename: H G Laurie
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Rauch
authors.affiliation: Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Newlands, 7725, South Africa. Electronic address: jacolene.kroff@uct.ac.za.
authors.forename: Jacolene
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kroff
authors.affiliation: Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Newlands, 7725, South Africa. Electronic address: vicki.lambert@uct.ac.za.
authors.forename: Estelle Victoria
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Lambert
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000523:psychology; D050177:Overweight / Q000523:psychology*; D012008:Recurrence; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cortical arousal; Electroencephalography (EEG); Food cue-reactivity; Stroop task; Weight loss maintenance