What is trained during food go/no-go training? A review focusing on mechanisms and a research agenda

Abstract

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Purpose of Review: During food go/no-go training, people consistently withhold responses toward no-go food items. We discuss how food go/no-go training may change people’s behavior toward no-go food items by comparing three accounts: (a) the training strengthens ‘top-down’ inhibitory control over food-related responses, (b) the training creates automatic ‘bottom-up’ associations between no-go food items and stopping responses, and (c) the training leads to devaluation of no-go food items. Recent Findings: Go/no-go training can reduce intake of food and choices for food and facilitate short-term weight loss. It appears unlikely that food go/no-go training strengthens top-down inhibitory control. There is some evidence suggesting the training could create automatic stop associations. There is strong evidence suggesting go/no-go training reduces evaluations of no-go food items. Summary: Food go/no-go training can change behavior toward food and evaluation of food items. To advance knowledge, more research is needed on the underlying mechanisms of the training, the role of attention during go/no-go training, and on when effects generalize to untrained food items.© The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. About this articl