Long-term habituation to food in obese and nonobese women.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Habituation is a form of learning in which repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to a decrease in responding. Eating involves repeated presentation of the same food stimulus in a meal, and habituation is reliably observed within a meal such that faster rates of habituation are associated with less energy intake. It is possible that repeated presentation of the same food over days will lead to long-term habituation, such that subjects habituate to foods repeated over meals. However, no research on long-term habituation to food in humans has been conducted.

Objective

The current study was designed to assess long-term habituation in 16 obese and 16 nonobese premenopausal women.

Design

Obese and nonobese women (aged 20-50 y) were randomly assigned to receive a

SUBMITTER: Epstein LH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3142716 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature