Curbing craving behavioral and brain evidence that children regulate craving when instructed to do so but have higher baseline craving than adults
Open accessAbstract
Although one third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese, developmental changes in food craving and the ability to regulate craving remain poorly understood. We addressed this knowledge gap by examining behavioral and neural responses to images of appetizing unhealthy foods in individuals ages 6 through 23 years. On close trials (assessing unregulated craving), participants focused on a pictured food's appetitive features. On far trials (assessing effortful regulation), participants focused on a food's visual features and imagined that it was farther away. Across conditions, older age predicted less craving, less striatal recruitment, greater prefrontal activity, and stronger frontostriatal coupling. When effortfully regulating their responses to the images, all participants reported less craving and exhibited greater recruitment of lateral prefrontal cortex and less recruitment of ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Greater body mass predicted less regulation-related prefrontal activity, particularly among children. These results suggest that children experience stronger craving than adults but can also effectively regulate craving. Moreover, the mechanisms underlying regulation may differ for heavy and lean children.
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The decreased craving and activation from reappraisal improved linearly with age.
“and this decreased craving and activation improved linearly with age [39,40].”
From The neuroscience of emotion regulation development: Implications for education (2016) · cites this paper as [39]
Application of reappraisal strategies led to decreased craving for rewarding foods and decreased activation in ventral striatum.
“in one reward domain - appetitive reactivity to foods -several studies found that application of reappraisal strategies led to decreased craving for rewarding foods and decreased activation in ventral striatum”
From The neuroscience of emotion regulation development: Implications for education (2016) · cites this paper as [39]
In contrast to regulating negative emotions, key developmental differences in appetitive food regulation were in baseline craving rather than skill in reappraising.
“Interestingly, and in contrast to studies of regulating negative emotions, the key developmental differences were found in the degree to which children and adolescents craved the foods at baseline as compared to adults, rather than their skill in reappraising.”
From The neuroscience of emotion regulation development: Implications for education (2016) · cites this paper as [39]
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- Authors
- Silvers, J. A., Insel, C., Powers, A., Franz, P., Weber, J., Mischel, W., Casey, B. J., & Ochsner, K. N.
- Affiliations
- Columbia University (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Long Island University (US)
- Cornell University (US)
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2014-09-05
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1932-1942
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- PMC
- PMC4268877
- OpenAlex
- W2112182627
- Cited by
- 76
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 10.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- U.S. Public Health Service (F31 NIMH 94056, R01 0691780)
- National Institute of Mental Health (F31MH094056)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD069178)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Keywords
- food cravings, childhood obesity, adolescents, prefrontal cortex, body mass, age differences, children versus adults
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Brain, Child, Child Development, Feeding Behavior, Female, Food, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Prefrontal Cortex, Adolescent Development, Young Adult, Functional Neuroimaging, Craving
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