A Study of Response Inhibition in Overweight/Obesity People Based on Event-Related Potential

Investigating the relationship between inhibitory control and dietary adherence among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus based on subjective and objective measures

BACKGROUND

Dietary management has been recommended as the cornerstone of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) management. However, low adherence to dietary recommendations has been identified in both developed and developing countries. Previous research suggests that inhibitory control influences eating behavior, but few studies have been conducted in patients with T2DM. Thus, we aimed to explore the relationship between inhibitory control and dietary adherence among patients with T2DM.

METHODS

A total of 393 patients with T2DM from the endocrinology departments of three tertiary hospitals in China were enrolled by the convenience sampling method. Dietary adherence was measured by the Dietary Behavior Adherence Scale for Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Additionally, inhibitory control was subjectively measured by the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult version (BRIEF-A) and objectively assessed by the stop signal task (SST) and the Stroop task. The relationship between inhibitory control and dietary adherence was analyzed using Pearson correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis.

RESULTS

Subjectively measured inhibitory control had a significant predictive effect for dietary adherence after controlling for demographic and clinical variables. Adding the inhibitory control variable to the regression equation resulted in the following values: overall model F (19, 373) = 7.096, p < 0.001, increase in R2 value by 0.069, change in F (1, 373) = 35.219, p < 0.001. Similarly, the performance of the Stroop task had a significant predictive effect for dietary adherence to some foods, i.e., carbohydrate and fat. Adding the Stroop effect variable to the regression equation resulted in the following values: overall model F (19, 81) = 2.848, p = 0.005, increase in R2 value by 0.060, change in F (1, 81) = 8.137, p = 0.006.

CONCLUSIONS

Inhibitory control was a predictor of dietary adherence in patients with T2DM. Future interventions should investigate whether inhibitory control training results in the improvement of dietary adherence in patients with T2DM.

The Association of Obesity and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Relation to Cognitive Flexibility: An Event-Related Potential Study

This study investigates an association between obesity and cardiorespiratory fitness concerning their potential effects on cognitive flexibility in young adults from behavioral and neuroelectrical perspectives. Eligible young adults (N = 140, 18-25 years) were assigned into one of four groups, according to their status of obesity (i.e., body mass index) and cardiorespiratory fitness levels (i.e., estimated maximal oxygen uptake), namely, normal weight with high cardiorespiratory fitness (NH), obese with high cardiorespiratory fitness (OH), normal weight with low cardiorespiratory fitness (NL), and obese with low cardiorespiratory fitness (OL). The task-switching test was utilized, and its induced endogenous (P3) and exogenous (N1) event-related potential components were recorded. Concerning behavioral indices, the NH demonstrated superior behavioral performance across global switching and local switching of the task-switching test compared to individuals with lower cardiorespiratory fitness and obesity (i.e., NL, OH, and OL). Additionally, the OH demonstrated better performance than the OL during the heterogeneous condition. For neuroelectrical indices, the NH had larger mean P3 amplitudes during global and local switching than the other three groups. A larger N1 amplitude was also observed in the NH during local switching than in the OH group. The findings suggest that cardiorespiratory fitness has beneficial effects on cognitive flexibility, attentional resource allocation, and sensory evaluation in young adults. Furthermore, our research provided novel evidence showing that cardiorespiratory fitness might potentially alleviate the adverse effects of obesity on cognitive flexibility in young adults.