scholarly journals Unhealthy yet Avoidable—How Cognitive Bias Modification Alters Behavioral and Brain Responses to Food Cues in Individuals with Obesity

Nutrients ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Mehl ◽  
Filip Morys ◽  
Arno Villringer ◽  
Annette Horstmann
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Cognitive Bias Modification ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Unhealthy Food ◽  
Food Cues ◽  
Bias Modification

Obesity is associated with automatically approaching problematic stimuli, such as unhealthy food. Cognitive bias modification (CBM) could beneficially impact problematic approach behavior. However, it is unclear which mechanisms are targeted by CBM in obesity. Candidate mechanisms include: (1) altering reward value of food stimuli; and (2) strengthening inhibitory abilities. Thirty-three obese adults completed either CBM or sham training during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. CBM consisted of implicit training to approach healthy and avoid unhealthy foods. At baseline, approach tendencies towards food were present in all participants. Avoiding vs. approaching food was associated with higher activity in the right angular gyrus (rAG). CBM resulted in a diminished approach bias towards unhealthy food, decreased activation in the rAG, and increased activation in the anterior cingulate cortex. Relatedly, functional connectivity between the rAG and right superior frontal gyrus increased. Analysis of brain connectivity during rest revealed training-related connectivity changes of the inferior frontal gyrus and bilateral middle frontal gyri. Taken together, CBM strengthens avoidance tendencies when faced with unhealthy foods and alters activity in brain regions underpinning behavioral inhibition.

scholarly journals Unhealthy Yet Avoidable – How Cognitive Bias Modification Alters Behavioral And Brain Responses To Food Cues In Obesity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehl Nora ◽  
Morys Filip ◽  
Villringer Arno ◽  
Horstmann Annette
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Cognitive Bias Modification ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Unhealthy Food ◽  
Obese People ◽  
Bias Modification

AbstractObjectiveObesity is associated with automatically approaching problematic stimuli, such as unhealthy food. Cognitive bias modification (CBM) could beneficially impact on problematic approach behavior. However, it is unclear which mechanisms are targeted by CBM in obesity: Candidate mechanisms include (1) altering reward value of food stimuli or (2) strengthening inhibitory abilities.Methods33 obese people completed either CBM or sham training during fMRI scanning. CBM consisted of an implicit training to approach healthy and avoid unhealthy foods.ResultsAt baseline, approach tendencies towards food were present in all participants. Avoiding vs. approaching food was associated with higher activity in the right angular gyrus (rAG). CBM resulted in a diminished approach bias towards unhealthy food, decreased activation in the rAG, and increased activation in the anterior cingulate cortex. Relatedly, functional connectivity between the rAG and right superior frontal gyrus increased. Analysis of brain connectivity during rest revealed training-related connectivity changes of the inferior frontal gyrus and bilateral middle frontal gyri.ConclusionTaken together, CBM strengthens avoidance tendencies when faced with unhealthy foods and alters activity in brain regions underpinning behavioral inhibition.

Examining Cognitive Bias Modification interventions for reducing food value and choice: Two pre-registered, online studies.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Masterton ◽  
Charlotte Hardman ◽  
Andrew Jones
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Food Choice ◽  
Psychological Treatment ◽  
Negative Stimulus ◽  
Cognitive Bias Modification ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Unhealthy Food ◽  
Weak Evidence ◽  
Bias Modification

There is considerable interest in Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) as a potential treatment for overweight / obesity. Inhibitory Control Training (ICT) and Evaluative Conditioning (EC) are two popular paradigms which rely on associatively learned responses (unhealthy food -> inhibition, or unhealthy food-> negative stimulus, respectively) through repeated cue-response contingencies. Both ICT and EC have demonstrated some effectiveness for reducing food intake, value and / or choice, when administered in the laboratory and online. However, studies have been criticised for inconsistencies in design (e.g. use of inadequate control groups) which makes it difficult to draw robust conclusions. In two pre-registered, online studies our aim was to examine active ICT (study 1) and EC (study 2) in multiple groups where the cue->response contingencies were systematically varied (100%, 75%, 50%, 25%), before examining food-cue valuations and hypothetical food choice. In both studies varying the cue-> response contingencies did not lead to significant changes in food-cue devaluation following training. ICT did not substantially influence hypothetical food choice, whereas there was weak evidence that EC reduced choice for unhealthy foods, compared to a control group with 50% cue-response contingencies. Taken together both studies provide limited evidence for online CBM as a viable psychological treatment – at least through the mechanism of food-cue devaluation or changes in healthy and unhealthy food choice. Future research is needed to investigate the factors that contribute towards successful CBM training to critically evaluate the potential for these strategies within health interventions.

scholarly journals Inferences Training Affects Memory, Rumination, and Mood

2021 ◽  
pp. 216770262110098
Author(s):  
Baruch Perlman ◽  
Nilly Mor ◽  
Yael Wisney Jacobinski ◽  
Adi Doron Zakon ◽  
Noa Avirbach ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Negative Mood ◽  
Cognitive Bias Modification ◽  
Negative Events ◽  
Training Effects ◽  
Causal Inferences ◽  
Causal Mechanisms ◽  
Bias Modification ◽  
Shed Light

Making negative inferences for negative events, ruminating about them, and retrieving negative aspects of memories have all been associated with depression. However, the causal mechanisms that link negative inferences to negative mood and the interplay between inferences, rumination, and memory have not been explored. In the current study, we used a cognitive-bias modification (CBM) procedure to train causal inferences and assessed training effects on ruminative thinking, memory, and negative mood among people with varying levels of depression. Training had immediate effects on negative mood and rumination but not after recall of a negative autobiographical memory. Note that training affected memory: Participants falsely recalled inferences presented during the training in a training-congruent manner. Moreover, among participants with high levels of depression, training also affected causal inferences they made for an autobiographical memory retrieved after training. Our findings shed light on negative cognitive cycles that may contribute to depression.

scholarly journals Cognitive bias modification: Induced interpretive biases affect memory.

Emotion ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya B. Tran ◽  
Paula T. Hertel ◽  
Jutta Joormann
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Cognitive Bias Modification ◽  
Bias Modification

scholarly journals Cross-sex hormone treatment and own-body perception: behavioral and brain connectivity profiles

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Behzad S. Khorashad ◽  
Amirhossein Manzouri ◽  
Jamie D. Feusner ◽  
Ivanka Savic
Keyword(s):  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Hormone Treatment ◽  
Sex Hormone ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Body Perception ◽  
Functional Connections ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Superior Parietal Cortex

AbstractReferrals for gender dysphoria (GD), characterized by a distressful incongruence between gender identity and at-birth assigned sex, are steadily increasing. The underlying neurobiology, and the mechanisms of the often-beneficial cross-sex hormone treatment are unknown. Here, we test hypothesis that own body perception networks (incorporated in the default mode network—DMN, and partly in the salience network—SN), are different in trans-compared with cis-gender persons. We also investigate whether these networks change with cross-sex hormone treatment. Forty transmen (TrM) and 25 transwomen (TrW) were scanned before and after cross-sex hormone institution. We used our own developed Body Morph test (BM), to assess the perception of own body as self. Fifteen cisgender persons were controls. Within and between-group differences in functional connectivity were calculated using independent components analysis within the DMN, SN, and motor network (a control network). Pretreatment, TrM and TrW scored lower “self” on the BM test than controls. Their functional connections were weaker in the anterior cingulate-, mesial prefrontal-cortex (mPFC), precuneus, the left angular gyrus, and superior parietal cortex of the DMN, and ACC in the SN “Self” identification and connectivity in the mPFC in both TrM and TrW increased from scan 1 to 2, and at scan 2 no group differences remained. The neurobiological underpinnings of GD seem subserved by cerebral structures composing major parts of the DMN.

scholarly journals When We Should Worry More: Using Cognitive Bias Modification to Drive Adaptive Health Behaviour

PLoS ONE ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. e85092 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lies Notebaert ◽  
Jessica Chrystal ◽  
Patrick J. F. Clarke ◽  
Emily A. Holmes ◽  
Colin MacLeod
Keyword(s):  
Health Behaviour ◽  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Cognitive Bias Modification ◽  
Bias Modification
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