Decreased Conflict Control in Overweight Chinese Females: Behavioral and Event-Related Potentials Evidence

Overweight or obesity is related to a decrease in cognitive control, especially conflict control. However, research on conflict control in overweight/obese individuals are still controversial. This study was conducted to explore general and food-related conflict control in overweight Chinese females (OWs) with a color–word Stroop task and a food-related conflict task. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the food-related conflict task. Behavioral results showed that, OWs had a longer reaction time (RT) than normal-weight Chinese females (NWs), in both tasks. ERP results in the food-related conflict task showed that there was a reduction of N2 and N450 response strength in OWs, and the P3 and late positive component (LPC) response strength was enhanced. Results indicated that OWs might be less efficient in monitoring and resolving conflict, and OWs tended to have a higher motivational or emotional involvement in processing food-related stimuli, which was likely to contribute to their difficulty in losing weight.