Modulation of event-related potentials to food cues upon sensory-specific satiety

Tempting environmental food cues and metabolic signals are important factors in appetite regulation. Food intake reduces liking of food cues that are congruent to the food eaten (sensory-specific satiety). With this study we aimed to assess effects of sensory-specific satiety on neural processing (perceptual and evaluative) of visual and olfactory food cues. Twenty healthy female subjects (age: 20 ± 2 years; BMI: 22 ± 2 kg/m²) participated in two separate test sessions during which they consumed an ad libitum amount of a sweet or savoury meal. Before and after consumption, event-related potentials were recorded in response to visual and olfactory cues signalling high-energy sweet, high-energy savoury, low-energy sweet and low-energy savoury food and non-food items. In general, we observed that food intake led to event-related potentials with an increased negative and decreased positive amplitudes for food, but also non-food cues. Changes were most pronounced in response to high-energy sweet food pictures after a sweet meal, and occurred in early processes of perception (~80–150 ms) and later processes of cognitive evaluation (~300–700 ms). Food intake appears to lead to general changes in neural processing that are related to motivated attention, and sensory-specific changes that reflect decreased positive valence of the stimuli and/or modulation of top-down cognitive control over processing of cues congruent to the food eaten to satiety.