Reversing Food Preference Through Multisensory Exposure

Experiencing food craving is nearly ubiquitous and has several negative patho-
logical impacts prompting an increase in recent craving-related research. Food
cue-reactivity tasks are often used to study craving, but most paradigms ignore
the individual food preferences of participants, which could confound the findings.
We explored the neuropsychological correlates of food craving preference using
psychophysical tasks on human participants considering their individual food pref-
erences in a multisensory food exposure set-up. Participants were grouped into
Liked Food Exposure (LFE), Disliked Food Exposure (DFE), and Neutral Control
(NEC) based on their preference for sweet and savory items. Participants reported
their momentary craving for the displayed food stimuli through the desire scale
and bidding scale (willingness to pay) pre and post multisensory exposure. Par-
ticipants were exposed to food items they either liked or disliked. Our results
asserted the effect of the multisensory food exposure showing a statistically signif-
icant increase in food craving for DFE participants postexposure to disliked food
items. Using computational models and statistical methods, we also show that the
desire for food does not necessarily translate to a willingness to pay every time,
and instantaneous subjective valuation of food craving is an important parameter
for subsequent action. Our results further demonstrate the role of parietal N200
and centro-parietal P300 in reversing food preference and possibly point to the
decrease of inhibitory control in up-regulating craving for disliked food.