Overweight children habituate slower than non-overweight children to food

We have shown that physiological and behavioral responses habituate to food stimuli and recover when novel stimuli are presented. In addition, physiological responses in obese adults habituate slower to repeated food stimuli than those in non-obese individuals, which is related to greater energy intake. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that instrumental responding in overweight children habituates slower to food cues than in their non-overweight peers. Children were provided the opportunity to work for access to cheeseburger for 10 2-min trials, followed by French fries for 3 2-min trials. Results showed that children who had a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 85th BMI percentile (at risk for overweight; n = 17) habituated slower than those with a BMI percentile less than the 85th BMI percentile (non-overweight; n = 17). Response recovery to French fries did not differ between groups. Overweight children consumed significantly more grams of food and more energy than non-overweight children. When taken together, these data show that habituation may be an important individual difference characteristic that differentiates overweight from non-overweight children. Implications of this for prevention and treatment of obesity are discussed.