Young Adults with Negative Body Image at Fatness Subscale Are More Restrained Than Normal Adults during a Chocolate Discounting Task

Sirui Huo; Jun Li; Jiaqi Guo; Han Yan; Xiaoyi Deng; Yong Liu; Jia Zhao

doi:10.3390/ijerph20126122

Young Adults with Negative Body Image at Fatness Subscale Are More Restrained Than Normal Adults during a Chocolate Discounting Task

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jun 14;20(12):6122. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20126122.

Authors

Sirui Huo¹, Jun Li¹, Jiaqi Guo¹, Han Yan¹, Xiaoyi Deng¹, Yong Liu^{1

2}, Jia Zhao^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
² Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Ministry of Education), Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
³ Chongqing Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Chongqing 400715, China.

Abstract

Research has confirmed that people with obesity exhibit special responses to food stimuli when it comes to food-related decision tasks. However, it is unclear whether the phenomenon exists in people who feel mentally obese, even though they are not obese. The aim of this study was to investigate the behavioral and neural correlations of food-related decision-making between young adults with negative body image at fatness subscale and a control group, so as to explore the differences in executive functioning between them. We used a time-delayed discounting task (DDT) and recruited 13 young female adults in each group to participate in the electroencephalogram (EEG) experiment. The number of selections for low immediate rewards and high delayed rewards was used as a performance indicator for DDT. Behavioral results showed a significant interaction effect between selection types and groups, where more delayed rewards and shorter immediate rewards were selected in the group with negative body image at fatness subscale than in the control group. Statistical correlations between body mass index (BMI) and selection times were found in the control group, but this phenomenon did not occur in the experimental group. The event-related potentials found that the P100 of young adults with a negative body image at fatness subscale was greater than those in the control group. P200 showed a significant interaction effect between groups, electrodes, and selection types. N200 and N450 in delayed rewards were more negative than in immediate rewards for both groups. These findings suggest that young adults with negative body image at fatness subscale are more restrained than young adults in the control group when choosing chocolates. Moreover, individuals with negative body image at fatness subscale might be more sensitive to food stimuli than individuals in the control group, because their P100 amplitude was significantly larger than that of individuals in the control group when exposed to food-related stimuli.

Keywords: chocolate discounting task; event-related potentials; negative physical self.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Body Dissatisfaction*
Cacao*
Chocolate*
DDT
Executive Function / physiology
Female
Humans
Obesity
Reward
Young Adult

Substances

DDT

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (32200849); the Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing (CSTB2022NSCQ-MSX0788); the Science and Technology Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission (KJQN202100217); the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SWU2009430, and SWU2209501); the Experimental Technology research funds of Southwest University (SYJ2023037). We also thank the participants of Southwest University.