@article {MedicENEURO.0025-16.2016, author = {Nenad Medic and Hisham Ziauddeen and Suzanna E. Forwood and Kirsty M. Davies and Amy L. Ahern and Susan A. Jebb and Theresa M. Marteau and Paul C. Fletcher}, title = {The presence of real food usurps hypothetical health value judgment in overweight people}, elocation-id = {ENEURO.0025-16.2016}, year = {2016}, doi = {10.1523/ENEURO.0025-16.2016}, publisher = {Society for Neuroscience}, abstract = {To develop more ecologically valid models of the neurobiology of obesity, it is critical to determine how the neural processes involved in food-related decision-making translate into real-world eating behaviours. We examined the relationship between goal-directed valuations of food images in the MRI scanner and food consumption at a subsequent ad libitum buffet meal. We observed that 23 lean and 40 overweight human participants showed similar patterns of value-based neural responses to health and taste attributes of foods. In both groups, these value-based responses in the ventromedial PFC were predictive of subsequent consumption at the buffet. However, overweight participants consumed a greater proportion of unhealthy foods. This was not predicted by in-scanner choices or neural response. Moreover, in overweight participants alone, impulsivity scores predicted greater consumption of unhealthy foods. Overall, our findings suggest that, while the hypothetical valuation of health of foods is predictive of eating behaviour in both lean and overweight people, it is only the real-world food choices that clearly distinguish them.Significance Statement: Do overweight people make unhealthier food choices than lean people because they value the healthiness of foods less than lean people do? We show that fMRI markers of valuation of healthiness of foods do not differ between the lean and overweight groups. While these markers do predict healthy food choices at an ad libitum buffet, they do not account for an overall greater selection of unhealthy food choices in the overweight group. This suggests that a fundamental shift in obesity may lie in how the presence of food overcomes prior value-based decision-making.}, URL = {https://www.eneuro.org/content/early/2016/04/13/ENEURO.0025-16.2016}, eprint = {https://www.eneuro.org/content/early/2016/04/13/ENEURO.0025-16.2016.full.pdf}, journal = {eNeuro} }