%A Lehner,Rea %A Balsters,Joshua H. %A Bürgler,Alexandra %A Hare,Todd A. %A Wenderoth,Nicole %D 2017 %J Frontiers in Psychiatry %C %F %G English %K pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer,cue-controlled behavior,incentive salience,Conditioned response,Eye Movements,Obesity %Q %R 10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00230 %W %L %M %P %7 %8 2017-November-13 %9 Original Research %+ Rea Lehner,Neural Control of Movement Laboratory, Department of Health Science and Technology, ETH Zurich,Switzerland,rea.lehner@sec.ethz.ch %+ Rea Lehner,Neuroscience Center Zurich, ETH Zurich, University of Zurich, University and Balgrist Hospital Zurich,Switzerland,rea.lehner@sec.ethz.ch %# %! PIT obesity %* %< %T Food-Predicting Stimuli Differentially Influence Eye Movements and Goal-Directed Behavior in Normal-Weight, Overweight, and Obese Individuals %U https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00230 %V 8 %0 JOURNAL ARTICLE %@ 1664-0640 %X Obese individuals have been shown to exhibit abnormal sensitivity to rewards and reward-predicting cues as for example food-associated cues frequently used in advertisements. It has also been shown that food-associated cues can increase goal-directed behavior but it is currently unknown, whether this effect differs between normal-weight, overweight, and obese individuals. Here, we investigate this question by using a Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) task in normal-weight (N = 20), overweight (N = 17), and obese (N = 17) individuals. Furthermore, we applied eye tracking during Pavlovian conditioning to measure the participants’ conditioned response as a proxy of the incentive salience of the predicted reward. Our results show that the goal-directed behavior of overweight individuals was more strongly influenced by food-predicting cues (i.e., stronger PIT effect) than that of normal-weight and obese individuals (p < 0.001). The weight groups were matched for age, gender, education, and parental education. Eye movements during Pavlovian conditioning also differed between weight categories (p < 0.05) and were used to categorize individuals based on their fixation style into “high eye index” versus “low eye index” as well. Our main finding was that the fixation style exhibited a complex interaction with the weight category. Furthermore, we found that normal-weight individuals of the group “high eye index” had higher body mass index within the healthy range than individuals of the group “low eye index” (p < 0.001), but this relationship was not found within in the overweight or obese groups (p > 0.646). Our findings are largely consistent with the incentive sensitization theory predicting that overweight individuals are more susceptible to food-related cues than normal-weight controls. However, this hypersensitivity might be reduced in obese individuals, possibly due to habitual/compulsive overeating or differences in reward valuation.