Cognitive regulation of food craving: effects of three cognitive reappraisal strategies on neural response to palatable foods.

OBJECTIVE: Obese versus lean individuals show greater reward region and reduced inhibitory region responsivity to food images, which predict future weight gain. Thinking of the costs of eating palatable foods and craving suppression have been found to modulate this neural responsivity, but these cognitive reappraisal studies have primarily involved lean participants. Herein we evaluated the efficacy of a broader range of reappraisal strategies in modulating neural responsivity to palatable food images among individuals who ranged from lean to obese and tested whether body mass index (BMI) moderates the effects of these strategies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Functional magnetic resonance imaging assessed the effects of three cognitive reappraisal strategies in response to palatable food images versus an imagined intake comparison condition in a sample of adolescents (N=21; M age=15.2).

RESULTS: Thinking of the long-term costs of eating the food, thinking of the long-term benefits of not eating the food and attempting to suppress cravings for the food increased activation in inhibitory regions (for example, superior frontal gyrus, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex) and reduced activation in attention-related regions (for example, precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex). The reappraisal strategy focusing on the long-term benefits of not eating the food more effectively increased inhibitory region activity and reduced attention region activity compared with the other two cognitive reappraisal strategies. BMI did not moderate the effects.

DISCUSSION: These novel results imply that cognitive reappraisal strategies, in particular those focusing on the benefits of not eating the food, could potentially increase the ability to inhibit appetitive motivation and reduce unhealthy food intake in overweight individuals.