The impact of food stimuli and fasting on cognitive control in task switching

Abstract

Previous research demonstrated motivation-control interactions in task switching. However, motivational effects on switch costs have been mostly examined using monetary rewards. Here, we investigated whether stimulus material linked to food and fasting affect control processes in task switching. We predicted that switching to the task comprising food stimuli would be facilitated, which should result in lower switch costs for this task, and that these effects would be stronger with higher motivational salience of the food stimuli, i.e. in hungry individuals and/or individuals with restrictive eating. Participants switched between categorising food items as sweet or savoury and digits as odd or even in two task-switching paradigms: an alternating runs and a voluntary task switching. Hunger was induced by 14 h fasting in the experimental compared to the control group. Results showed lower switch costs for the motivational-affective food task in both task-switching paradigms and in both groups. Switch costs for the neutral digit task were significantly higher in the fasting group compared to the control group in alternating runs task switching only. Individual differences in restrictive eating were related negatively but not significantly to the size of the switch costs. All in all, the results demonstrate an impact of motivational-affective stimuli on cognitive control in task switching and suggest a potential modulatory role of motivational states, though the findings need to be replicated.