Conditioning by a Previous Experience Impairs the Rewarding Value of a Comfort Meal.

backgroundMeal ingestion induces a postprandial experience that involves homeostatic and hedonic sensations. Our aim was to determine the effect of aversive conditioning on the postprandial reward of a comfort meal.

methodsA sham-controlled, randomised, parallel, single-blind study was performed on 12 healthy women (6 per group). A comfort meal was tested before and after coupling the meal with an aversive sensation (conditioning intervention), induced by infusion of lipids via a thin naso-duodenal catheter; in the pre- and post-conditioning tests and in the control group, a sham infusion was performed. Participants were instructed that two recipes of a tasty humus would be tested; however, the same meal was administered with a colour additive in the conditioning and post-conditioning tests. Digestive well-being (primary outcome) was measured every 10 min before and 60 min after ingestion using graded scales.

resultsIn the aversive conditioning group, the comfort meal in the pre-conditioning test induced a pleasant postprandial experience, which was significantly lower in the post-conditioning test; the effect of aversive conditioning (change from pre- to post-conditioning) was significant as compared to sham conditioning in the control group, which showed no differences between study days.

conclusionThe hedonic postprandial response to a comfort meal in healthy women is impaired by aversive conditioning. CLINICALTRIALS: gov ID: NCT04938934.