LAUSR

ABSTRACT The mere perception of high‐calorie food items can trigger strong action tendencies towards these foods. Go/no‐go training has successfully been applied to reduce such action tendencies. This study investigated the electrophysiological mechanisms that may underlie the beneficial effects of go/no‐go training on food consumption. EEG was measured while 19 participants passively observed pictures of food and non‐food items, both before and after the go/no‐go training. During training, 50% of the food and non‐food items were consistently paired with a go/no‐go response. After training, food items that had been associated with a response induced larger mu desynchronization at electrodes over sensorimotor regions, whereas food items that had been associated with withholding from responding induced larger increases in theta power at frontal midline electrodes. These findings suggest that the exerted cognitive control during go/no‐go training with attractive food stimuli may become associated with these stimuli and signal the required level of control during subsequent encounters. HighlightsGo/no‐go training affects food item processing during subsequent passive viewing.Frontal theta power is larger for food items paired with no‐go than go responses.Mu desynchronization is higher for food items paired with go than no‐go responses.The need for cognitive control seems to be tagged to specific stimuli.