When individuals eat while distracted, they may compensate by consuming more afterwards. Here, we examined the effect of eating while driving, and explored potential underlying mechanisms.... Show moreWhen individuals eat while distracted, they may compensate by consuming more afterwards. Here, we examined the effect of eating while driving, and explored potential underlying mechanisms. Participants (N = 116, 73.3% female) were randomly allocated to complete a driving simulation (distraction condition) or to watch someone else drive (control condition) while consuming 10g (50.8 kcal) of potato chips. Afterwards, participants rated the taste intensity and hedonic experience, reported stress levels, and were then given the opportunity to eat more chips. As hypothesized, participants consumed more chips after the driving simulation. Stress levels were higher in the driving compared to control condition, but were inversely related to consumption amount, ruling out stress as explanatory mechanism. Saltiness ratings differed between the driving and passive viewing condition, only when controlling for stress. The current findings converge with earlier work showing that distracted eating can drive overconsumption, which in turn can lead to long-term health implications. Limitations, implications and potential directions are discussed. Show less
Meer, A.F. van; Steenbergen, H. van; Dillen, L.F. van 2023
Distracted eating can cause overconsumption. Whereas previous work has shown that cognitive load suppresses perceived taste intensity and increases subsequent consumption, the mechanism behind... Show moreDistracted eating can cause overconsumption. Whereas previous work has shown that cognitive load suppresses perceived taste intensity and increases subsequent consumption, the mechanism behind distraction-induced overconsumption remains unclear. To elucidate this, we performed two event-related fMRI experiments that examined how cognitive load affects neural responses and perceived intensity and preferred intensity, respectively, to solutions varying in sweetness. In Experiment 1 (N = 24), participants tasted weak sweet and strong sweet glucose solutions and rated their intensity while we concurrently varied cognitive load using a digit-span task. In Experiment 2 (N = 22), participants tasted five different glucose concentrations under varying cognitive load and then indicated whether they wanted to keep, decrease or increase its sweetness. Participants in Experiment 1 rated strong sweet solutions as less sweet under high compared to low cognitive load, which was accompanied by attenuated activation the right middle insula and bilateral DLPFC. Psychophysiological interaction analyses showed that cognitive load moreover altered connectivity between the middle insula and nucleus accumbens and DLPFC and middle insula while tasting strong sweet solutions. In Experiment 2, cognitive load did not affect participants’ preferred sweetness intensity. fMRI results revealed that cognitive load attenuated DLPFC activation for the strongest sweet solutions in the study. In conclusion, our behavioral and neuroimaging results suggest that cognitive load dampens the sensory processing of strong sweet solutions in particular, which may indicate higher competition for attentional resources for strong sweet than weak sweet solutions under high cognitive load. Implications for future research are discussed. Show less
Meer, A.F. van; Vos, F. de; Hermans, R.C.J.; Peeters, P.A.; Dillen, L.F. van 2022
The rapidly increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity has heightened the need for a better understanding of obesity-related eating patterns and dietary behaviours. Recent work suggests that... Show moreThe rapidly increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity has heightened the need for a better understanding of obesity-related eating patterns and dietary behaviours. Recent work suggests that distracted eating is causally related to increased immediate and later food, pushing the need for a better understanding of the prevalence of distracted consumption and how this relates to body weight. To extract insights in the relationship between demographics, daily consumption settings, and BMI, we performed secondary data analyses on data from 1011 individuals representative of the Dutch population (adults, 507F, BMI 17–50 kg/m2). The most commonly reported distractions were talking to others (32.7%) and watching television (21.7%). Only 18.4% of respondents reported no distractions during meals. To examine how different distractions related to BMI, we performed OLS regression which showed, among other things, that watching tv while eating lunch (η2 = 0.37) and working during dinner were associated with a higher BMI (η2 = 1.63). To examine the robustness of these findings, machine learning techniques were used. A random forest analysis (RMSE = 4.09) showed that next to age and education level, distraction during lunch and snack was amongst the largest predictors of BMI. Multiple linear regression with lasso penalty (RMSE = 4.13) showed that specifically watching tv while eating lunch or snacks was associated with a higher BMI. In conclusion, our analyses confirmed the assumption that people are regularly distracted during their daily meals, with distinct distractors relating to BMI. These findings provide a starting point for evidence-based recommendations on which consumption settings are associated with healthier eating patterns and body weight. Show less
