Media multi-tasking and cued overeating: assessing the pathway and piloting an intervention using an attentional network framework

项目摘要：媒体多任务处理和暗示暴饮暴食：评估途径和试点 使用注意网络框架的干预 儿童肥胖症是美国一个严重的公共卫生问题。一个已知的因素是 儿童肥胖是过度消费。重要的是，与体重增加有关的过度消费不是 必然是饥饿驱使的。例如，环境食物线索刺激大脑奖励区域， 甚至在孩子吃得很饱之后也会暴饮暴食。这种类型的暗示进食与增加 对食物线索的注意力;儿童花在看食物线索上的时间量（例如，食品广告）是 与热量摄入增加有关。然而，个体对环境食物线索的敏感性仍然存在， 未知我们建议，媒体多任务的普遍做法-同时参加多个 电子媒体源-增加了对环境中周围食物线索的注意力， 在肥胖症的发展中起着重要作用。我们相信，多任务教育孩子们参与 不断的任务转换，使他们对外围线索更敏感，其中许多可能是 有害的（如促进暴饮暴食）。我们的总体假设是，媒体多任务处理改变了 大脑的注意力网络控制着对环境线索的注意力。高媒体多任务 因此，儿童特别容易受到食物暗示的影响，从而导致更多的暗示进食。也是 我们相信注意力调整训练可以对有害的注意力提供保护作用。 通过提高注意力网络的熟练程度，处理导致了多任务处理。我们将直接测试 这些假设通过评估媒体多任务处理，注意食物线索和线索之间的途径， 吃我们还将研究是否有可能通过引导注意力来干预这一途径。 旨在减少对食物线索的注意力的修正训练干预。我们相信这项研究将 导致开发低成本，可扩展的工具，可以训练注意力网络，使儿童更少 受到周围食物线索的影响，这是暴饮暴食的一个已知原因。例如，让孩子练习 注意力修正干预任务（可以通过用户友好的 电脑游戏或手机/平板电脑应用程序）可能会抵消媒体多任务处理的负面注意力影响。

Project Summary: Media multi-tasking and cued overeating: assessing the pathway and piloting an intervention using an attentional network framework Childhood obesity is a critical public health problem in the United States. One factor known to contribute to childhood obesity is excess consumption. Importantly, excess consumption related to weight gain is not necessarily driven by hunger. For example, environmental food cues stimulate brain reward regions and lead to overeating even after a child has eaten to satiety. This type of cued eating is associated with increased attention to food cues; the amount of time a child spends looking at food cues (e.g., food advertisements) is associated with increased caloric intake. However, individual susceptibility to environmental food cues remains unknown. We propose that the prevalent practice of media multi-tasking—simultaneously attending to multiple electronic media sources—increases attention to peripheral food cues in the environment and thereby plays an important role in the development of obesity. We believe that multi-tasking teaches children to engage in constant task switching that makes them more responsive to peripheral cues, many of which are potentially harmful (such as those that promote overeating). Our overarching hypothesis is that media multi-tasking alters the attentional networks of the brain that control attention to environmental cues. High media multi-tasking children are therefore particularly susceptible to food cues, thereby leading to increased cued eating. It is also our conviction that attention modification training can provide a protective effect against detrimental attentional processing caused multi-tasking, by increasing the proficiency of the attention networks. We will directly test these hypotheses by assessing the pathway between media-multitasking, attention to food cues, and cued eating. We will also examine whether it is possible to intervene on this pathway by piloting an attention modification training intervention designed to reduce attention to food cues. It is our belief that this research will lead to the development of low-cost, scalable tools that can train attention networks so that children are less influenced by peripheral food cues, a known cause of overeating. For example, having children practice attention modification intervention tasks regularly (which could be accomplished through user- friendly computer games or cell phone/tablet apps) might offset the negative attentional effects of media multi- tasking.