Response Inhibition to High Calorie Food Cues Among Adolescents Following Active and Sedentary Video Game Play

Response inhibition is a cognitive process that helps individuals suppress or avoid unwanted actions and inappropriate behavior. In regards to food, response inhibition allows a person to resist eating, ignore poor food choices and poor behavior related to food choices. Previous research suggests that physical activity may play a role in the regulation of response inhibition to food in adults. The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of an acute bout of active video gaming versus passive video gaming on response inhibition to high calorie and low calorie food images among adolescents. The proposed study is a randomized cross-over study with counterbalanced design. Participants will come to the lab two times. Each subject will serve as their own control. There will be two conditions and all participants will complete both conditions. One condition will be completed each time the participants come to the lab. The two conditions will include (a) 60 minutes of sedentary video game play and (b) 60 minutes of active video game play at moderate-intense levels. After each video game condition the participants will view pictures of high-calorie and low-calorie foods while being connected to an EEG machine. The EEG will measure the N2 and P3 event-related potentials, which will be used to index and analyze response inhibition. As participants view the pictures of high-calorie and low-calorie foods, they will be given a button pressing task where the press a button when they see pictures of the high-calorie or low-calorie foods. Immediately after each video game session participants will complete two cognitive measurement tasks. These tasks are (a) Stroop color-word task and (b) auditory verbal learning test. The Stroop color-word test requires the participants to read words typed in different colors on a sheet of paper and to say the name of the color of ink the words are printed in (ie to say "blue" when the word "red" is printed in blue ink). The auditory verba