Motivational impact of palatable food correlates with functional brain responses to food images in adolescents

Abstract

Objective To examine associations between motivational impact of palatable foods and neural activity in brain regions involved in inhibitory control among adolescents. Methods Thirty-four adolescents aged 14-20 years underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while viewing images of high- and low-energy foods. Participants completed the Power of Food Scale (PFS). Whole-brain analyses of variance tested for neural activation differences and correlations between brain activation and PFS scores were tested. Results We found an interaction between food type (high energy vs. low energy) and PFS scores in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right inferior parietal lobule. We also found that PFS scores correlated negatively with activation to high-energy foods in prefrontal cortical and parietal regions. Conclusions These findings suggest that individuals with high motivation for high-energy foods also demonstrate lower neural activation in inhibition-related brain regions when viewing images of high-energy foods, indicating that they may have difficulty inhibiting consumption impulses.