title: Dietary restraint and impulsivity modulate neural responses to food in adolescents with obesity and healthy adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Despite alarming prevalence rates, surprisingly little is known about neural mechanisms underlying eating behavior in juveniles with obesity. To simulate reactivity to modern food environments, event-related potentials (ERP) to appetizing food images (relative to control images) were recorded in adolescents with obesity and healthy adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-four adolescents with obesity (patients) and 24 matched healthy control adolescents watched and rated standardized food and object images during ERP recording. Personality (impulsivity) and eating styles (trait craving and dietary restraint) were assessed as potential moderators.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Food relative to object images triggered larger early (P100) and late (P300) ERPs. More impulsive individuals had considerably larger food-specific P100 amplitudes in both groups. Controls with higher restraint scores showed reduced food-specific P300 amplitudes and subjective palatability ratings whereas patients with higher restraint scores showed increased P300 and palatability ratings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This first ERP study in adolescents with obesity and controls revealed impulsivity as a general risk factor in the current obesogenic environment by increasing food-cue salience. Dietary restraint showed paradoxical effects in patients, making them more vulnerable to visual food-cues. Salutogenic therapeutic approaches that deemphasize strict dietary restraint and foster healthy food choice might reduce such paradoxical effects.
authors.affiliation: Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Austria.|Department of Pediatrics, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria.|Obesity Research Unit, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria.|Obesity Academy Austria, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hofmann
authors.affiliation: Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Austria.|Obesity Academy Austria, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ardelt-Gattinger
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria.|Obesity Academy Austria, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Paulmichl
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria.|Obesity Research Unit, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria.|Obesity Academy Austria, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Weghuber
authors.affiliation: Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Austria.|Obesity Academy Austria, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blechert
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000067697:Adolescent Health; D031204:Caloric Restriction / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D003463:Cues; D004032:Diet / Q000523:psychology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000523:psychology*