A More Supportive Social Environment May Protect Against Nutritional Risk: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Using Data From the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

BACKGROUND: Nutritional risk has been linked to individual social factors, but the relationship with the overall social environment has not been assessed. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate associations between different support profiles of the social environment and nutritional risk using cross-sectional data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (n = 20,206). Subgroup analyses were performed among middle-aged (range, 45-64 y; n = 12,726) and older-aged (≥65 y, n = 7480) adults. Consumption of major food groups [whole grains, proteins, dairy products, and fruits and vegetables (FV)] by social environment profile was a secondary outcome. METHODS: Latent structure analysis (LSA) classified participants into social environment profiles according to data on network size, social participation, social support, social cohesion, and social isolation. Nutritional risk and food group consumption were assessed with the SCREEN-II-AB and Short Dietary questionnaires, respectively. ANCOVA was conducted to compare SCREEN-II-AB mean scores by social environment profile, adjusted for sociodemographic and lifestyle factors. Models were repeated to compare mean food group consumption (times/day) by social environment profile. RESULTS: LSA identified 3 social environment profiles classified as low, medium, and high support (17%, 40%, and 42% of the sample, respectively). Adjusted mean SCREEN-II-AB scores significantly increased with increasing social environment support, with the low support score indicating high nutritional risk status [low, medium, high support, respectively: 37.1 (99% CI: 36.9, 37.4), 39.3 (39.2, 39.5), 40.3 (40.2, 40.5), all comparisons P < 0.0001]. Results were consistent among age subgroups. The low support social environment profile had lower consumption of protein [low, medium, high support, respectively (mean ± SD): 2.17 ± 0.09, 2.21 ± 0.07, 2.23 ± 0.08, P = 0.004], dairy (2.32 ± 0.23, 2.40 ± 0.20, 2.38 ± 0.21, P = 0.009), and FV (3.65 ± 0.23, 3.94 ± 0.20, 4.08 ± 0.21, P < 0.0001), with some variation among age subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: The low support social environment profile had the poorest nutritional outcomes. Therefore, a more supportive social environment may protect against nutritional risk among middle- and older-aged adults.

The Effects of Food Advertisements on Food Intake and Neural Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Recent Experimental Studies.

Food advertisements are ubiquitous in our daily environment. However, the relationships between exposure to food advertising and outcomes related to ingestive behavior require further investigation. The objective was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of behavioral and neural responses to food advertising in experimental studies. PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched for articles published from January 2014 to November 2021 using a search strategy following PRISMA guidelines. Experimental studies conducted with human participants were included. A random-effects inverse-variance meta-analysis was performed on standardized mean differences (SMD) of food intake (behavioral outcome) between the food advertisement and nonfood advertisement conditions of each study. Subgroup analyses were performed by age, BMI group, study design, and advertising media type. A seed-based d mapping meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies was performed to evaluate neural activity between experimental conditions. Nineteen articles were eligible for inclusion, 13 for food intake (n = 1303) and 6 for neural activity (n = 303). The pooled analysis of food intake revealed small, but statistically significant, effects of increased intake after viewing food advertising compared with the control condition among adults and children (adult SMD: 0.16; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.28; P = 0.01; I2 = 0; 95% CI: 0, 95.0%; Children SMD: 0.25; 95% CI: 0.14, 0.37; P < 0.0001; I2 = 60.4%; 95% CI: 25.6%, 79.0%). The neuroimaging studies involved children only, and the pooled analysis corrected for multiple comparisons identified one significant cluster, the middle occipital gyrus, with increased activity after food advertising exposure compared with the control condition (peak coordinates: 30, -86, 12; z-value: 6.301, size: 226 voxels; P < 0.001). These findings suggest that acute exposure to food advertising increases food intake among children and adults and that the middle occipital gyrus is an implicated brain region among children. (PROSPERO registration: CRD42022311357).

Measuring food-related inhibition with go/no-go tasks: Critical considerations for experimental design.

The use of go/no-go tasks to assess inhibitory control over food stimuli is becoming increasingly popular. However, the wide variability in the design of these tasks makes it difficult to fully leverage their results. The goal of this commentary was to provide researchers with crucial aspects to consider when designing food-related go/no-go experiments. We examined 76 studies that used food-themed go/no-go tasks and extracted characteristics related to participant population, methodology, and analysis. Based on our observations of common issues that can influence study conclusions, we stress the importance for researchers to design an appropriate control condition and match stimuli between experimental conditions in terms of emotional and physical properties. We also emphasize that stimuli should be tailored to the participants under study, whether at the individual or group level. To ensure that the task truly measures inhibitory abilities, researchers should promote the establishment of a prepotent response pattern by presenting more go than no-go trials and by using short trials. Researchers should also pre-specify the criteria used to identify potentially invalid data. While go/no-go tasks represent valuable tools for studying food cognition, researchers should choose task parameters carefully and justify their methodological and analytical decisions in order to ensure the validity of results and promote best practices in food-related inhibition research.

Food Values, Food Purchasing, and Eating-Related Outcomes Among a Sample of Quebec Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Purpose: This investigation evaluated food values, food purchasing, and other food and eating-related outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec, Canada. The role of stress in eating outcomes was also examined.Methods: An online household survey was conducted among Quebec adults aged ≥18 years (n = 658). Changes in outcomes during, as compared to before, the pandemic were evaluated using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis of free text responses. Eating outcomes by daily stress level (low, some, high) were assessed using Cochran-Armitage test for trend.Results: Most respondents reported increased importance and purchasing of local food products (77% and 68%, respectively) and 60% reported increased grocery spending (mean ± standard deviation: 28% ± 23%). Respondents with a higher daily stress level had a higher frequency of reporting eating more than usual compared to before the pandemic (low stress 21%, some stress 34%, high stress 39%, p-trend <0.0001). Free text responses described more time spent at home as a reason for eating more than usual.Conclusions: To support healthy eating during and post-pandemic, dietitians should consider patients' mental/emotional well-being and time spent at home. Moreover, support of local food products may provide opportunities to promote healthy eating, sustainability, and post-pandemic resiliency of food systems.

Adherence to a caloric budget and body weight change vary by season, gender, and BMI: An observational study of daily users of a mobile health app.

Objective: Self-monitoring, one of the most important behaviors for successful weight loss, can be facilitated through mobile health applications (mHealth apps). Therefore, it is of interest to determine whether consistent users of these apps succeed in achieving their weight goals. This study used data from an mHealth app that enabled tracking of caloric intake, body weight, and physical activity and provided a caloric budget depending on weight goal. The primary objective was to evaluate adherence to caloric budget and body weight change among the most consistent (i.e., daily) trackers of caloric intake over a calendar year (n = 9372, 50% male). Methods: Gender-stratified linear mixed models were conducted to examine the effects of quarter of year (Q1-Q4 as season proxies) and body mass index (BMI) group (normal weight, overweight, obesity) on adherence to a caloric budget (kcal/day). Change in body weight was analyzed using a subset of users (n = 5808) who entered their weight in the app at least once per week, once per month, or once in Q1 and Q4. Physical activity entries were evaluated in exploratory analyses. Results: Only users with obesity met their caloric budget in Q1. Deviation from budget increased for all groups from Q1 to Q2 (mean change[±standard error of the mean]: +23.7[±1.8] and +39.7[±2.2] kcal/day for female and male users, p < 0.001), was stable between Q2 and Q3, and fluctuated thereafter depending on gender and BMI, with greater deviation among males with overweight. Users with obesity with weight entries at least once per month lost the most weight (-6.1[±0.3] and -4.5[±0.3] kg for females and males, p < 0.001). Physical activity was highest in the summer months. Conclusions: Among consistent calorie trackers, adherence to a caloric budget and body weight vary by season, gender, and BMI. Self-monitoring of body weight in addition to calorie tracking may lead to improved weight loss outcomes.

Resuming a Dynamic Task Following Increasingly Long Interruptions: The Role of Working Memory and Reconstruction.

Studies examining individual differences in interruption recovery have shown that higher working memory capacity (WMC) attenuated the negative impact of interruption length on resumption, at least in static contexts. In continuously evolving (or dynamic) situations, however, working memory may not be as central to the effective resumption of a task, especially in the case of long interruptions. One of the main theories of task interruption suggests that dynamic task resumption could depend on a reconstruction of the primary task context, that is, a visual examination of the post-interruption environment. To better define the role of working memory and reconstruction processes in interruption recovery, the current study examined the association between (1) dynamic task resumption following interruptions of various lengths and (2) two cognitive abilities chosen to operationalize the processes under study, namely, WMC and visual search capacity. Participants performed a multiple object tracking task which could be uninterrupted or interrupted for 5, 15, or 30 s while the hidden stimuli continued their trajectory. They also completed tasks measuring the two cognitive abilities of interest. The results revealed that WMC contributed to post-interruption accuracy regardless of interruption duration. On the contrary, visual search capacity was related to faster resumption in the 15-s and 30-s interruption conditions only. Those results show that working memory plays a preponderant role in resumption not only in static, but also in dynamic contexts. However, our study suggests that this mechanism must share the limelight with reconstruction following lengthy interruptions in dynamic settings.

Longitudinal Patterns of Food Procurement Over the Course of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings From a Canadian Online Household Survey.

Introduction: Consumer food procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic has been understudied. This investigation aimed to longitudinally evaluate food procurement patterns, concern of virus exposure in grocery retailers, and food access challenges over the pandemic among a sample of households in Quebec, Canada. Methods: Online surveys were collected at three time points of the pandemic: first wave in spring 2020 (lockdown period), summer 2020 (deconfinement period), and second wave in winter 2021 (curfew period). Respondents were the household's primary grocery shopper (n = 491). Non-parametric tests and multivariable logistic regression were conducted to compare responses over time and to evaluate characteristics of respondents who regularly used no-contact grocery methods (store pick-up or home delivery). Results: Frequency of in-store grocery shopping was lowest during the lockdown (once per week or less), and significantly increased over time to resemble pre-pandemic frequency. Concern of virus exposure in grocery retailers and disinfection/discarding of food packaging was highest during the lockdown, but significantly decreased over time. At all time points, use of public transit, walking or cycling for grocery shopping was associated with regular use of no-contact grocery methods (curfew odds ratio (OR): 3.13 (95% confidence interval 1.60, 6.14). Age (60 years+) was associated with regular use during the lockdown [OR: 2.27 (1.13, 4.59)]. Conclusion: Among our sample, frequency of in-store grocery shopping was lowest and concern of virus exposure in stores was highest during the lockdown period. No-contact grocery use was associated with transportation mode and potentially with personal risk perception (age).

The automaticity of semantic processing revisited: Auditory distraction by a categorical deviation.

Automatic information processing has been and still is a debated topic. Traditionally, automatic processes are deemed to take place autonomously and independently of top-down cognitive control. For decades, the literature on reading has brought to the fore empirical phenomena such as Stroop and semantic priming effects that provide support for the assumption that semantic information can be accessed automatically. More recently, there has been growing evidence that semantic processing is in fact susceptible to higher-level cognitive influences, suggesting that this form of processing is instead conditionally automatic. The purpose of the present study was to revisit this debate using a novel approach: The automatic access to the meaning of irrelevant auditory stimuli was tested through the assessment of their distractive power. More specifically, we aimed to examine whether a categorical change in the content of to-be-ignored auditory sequences composed of speech items that are personally nonsignificant to participants (e.g., a digit among letters) can disrupt an unrelated visual focal task. In seven experiments, we assessed this categorical deviation effect and its functional properties. We established that distraction by categorical deviation is noncontingent on the activated task set and appears resistant to top-down control manipulations. By suggesting not only that the semantic content of the irrelevant sound can be extracted preattentively, but also that such semantic activation is ineluctable during auditory distraction, these findings shed new light on the automatic nature of semantic processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Forewarning interruptions in dynamic settings: Can prevention bolster recovery?

In complex dynamic work environments, the consequences of task interruptions on performance can put public safety at risk. If not designed carefully, current tools aiming to facilitate interruption recovery can instead hamper performance because of information overload. Although a simpler solution-the forewarning of an imminent interruption-has proven effective in static contexts, existing theories of task interruption do not clearly predict its impact on the resumption of dynamically evolving tasks. The current study examined the effects of a preinterruption warning in dynamic settings to develop a better understanding of task resumption and supplement current theoretical accounts. In a simulation of above-water warfare, scenarios were either uninterrupted, unexpectedly interrupted, or interrupted following an auditory warning. Behavioral, oculomotor, and pupillometric data regarding decision making, information processing, and cognitive load were computed before, during, and after each interruption (or the corresponding moment). Interruption warnings triggered a cognitively demanding preinterruption preparation that, in turn, speeded up postinterruption information processing and decision making and lowered cognitive load when resuming the interrupted task. These findings help to complement current theories of interruptions while showing that preinterruption warnings represent a promising way to support interruption recovery in complex dynamic situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Eyes have ears: Indexing the orienting response to sound using pupillometry.

The rare occurrence of a sound deviating from the auditory background tends to trigger attentional orienting. While some sympathetic physiological responses can be used to index this orienting response, findings surrounding the pupillary dilation response (PDR) as a proxy for the orienting response are conflicting. The current study was tailor-designed to examine whether the PDR satisfies specific criteria of an orienting response index, namely the classic habituation pattern and a sensitivity to the size of the deviation. The PDR decrement to a repeated standard sound, recovery to a deviant sound, and dishabituation to the re-presentation of the standard were assessed for small and large deviations embedded in irrelevant auditory sequences. The PDR not only showed habituation and dishabituation, but also recovered in correspondence with the magnitude of the acoustic deviation. This consistency between variations of the PDR and orienting response's properties indicates that the PDR is a valid index of the auditory orienting response.

Chatting in the face of the eyewitness: The impact of extraneous cell-phone conversation on memory for a perpetrator.

Cell-phone conversation is ubiquitous within public spaces. The current study investigates whether ignored cell-phone conversation impairs eyewitness memory for a perpetrator. Participants viewed a video of a staged crime in the presence of 1 side of a comprehensible cell-phone conversation (meaningful halfalogue), 2 sides of a comprehensible cell-phone conversation (meaningful dialogue), 1 side of an incomprehensible cell-phone conversation (meaningless halfalogue), or quiet. Between 24 and 28 hr later, participants freely described the perpetrator's face, constructed a single composite image of the perpetrator from memory, and attempted to identify the perpetrator from a sequential lineup. Further, participants rated the likeness of the composites to the perpetrator. Face recall and lineup identification were impaired when participants witnessed the staged crime in the presence of a meaningful halfalogue compared to a meaningless halfalogue, meaningful dialogue, or quiet. Moreover, likeness ratings showed that the composites constructed after ignoring the meaningful halfalogue resembled the perpetrator less than did those constructed after experiencing quiet or ignoring a meaningless halfalogue or a meaningful dialogue. The unpredictability of the meaningful content of the halfalogue, rather than its acoustic unexpectedness, produces distraction. The results are novel in that they suggest that an everyday distraction, even when presented in a different modality to target information, can impair the long-term memory of an eyewitness. (PsycINFO Database Record

Attentional capture by deviant sounds: A noncontingent form of auditory distraction?

The occurrence of an unexpected, infrequent sound in an otherwise homogeneous auditory background tends to disrupt the ongoing cognitive task. This "deviation effect" is typically explained in terms of attentional capture whereby the deviant sound draws attention away from the focal activity, regardless of the nature of this activity. Yet, there is theoretical and empirical evidence suggesting that the attention-capture mechanism underlying this form of distraction could rather be triggered in a task-contingent fashion. The present study aimed at determining whether the auditory deviation effect reflects the action of either a stimulus-driven or a task-contingent orienting mechanism. To do so, we conducted a systematic investigation whereby the impact of verbal deviants-a letter embedded in the repetition of another letter-and spatial deviants-a sound presented contralaterally to the other sounds-on verbal and spatial short-term memory (STM) was assessed. This study established that both verbal and spatial deviants can hinder both verbal and spatial order-reconstruction (Experiment 1) and missing-item tasks (Experiment 2). Such results demonstrate that the deviation effect reflects a general form of auditory distraction as interference took place both within and across domains and regardless of the processes engaged in the focal task. (PsycINFO Database Record

Discrimination of two neighboring intra- and intermodal empty time intervals marked by three successive stimuli.

We investigated the discrimination of two neighboring intra- or inter-modal empty time intervals marked by three successive stimuli. Each of the three markers was a flash (visual-V) or a sound (auditory-A). The first and last markers were of the same modality, while the second one was either A or V, resulting in four conditions: VVV, VAV, AVA and AAA. Participants judged whether the second interval, whose duration was systematically varied, was shorter or longer than the 500-ms first interval. Compared with VVV and AAA, discrimination was impaired with VAV, but not so much with AVA (in Experiment 1). Whereas VAV and AVA consisted of the same set of single intermodal intervals (VA and AV), discrimination was impaired in the VAV compared to the AVA condition. This difference between VAV and AVA could not be attributed to the participants' strategy to perform the discrimination task, e.g., ignoring the standard interval or replacing the visual stimuli with sounds in their mind (in Experiment 2). These results are discussed in terms of sequential grouping according to sensory similarity.