Go/No-Go tasks, which require participants to inhibit automatic responses to images of palatable foods, have shown diagnostic value in quantifying food-related impulses.Moreover, they have shown potential for training to control impulsive eating. To test a suggested hypothesis that training modulates early neural markers of responseinhibition, the current study investigated how N2 event-related brain potential to high and low-calorie food images changes along the Go-/No-Go training and how the

more »

... 2 is related to later eating behavior. Participants first completed a food Go/No-Go task in which high and low calorie food images were accompanied by Go- and No-Go-cues with equal frequency. Participants then completed a training block in which high-calorie foods were predominantly paired with a No-Go cue and the low-calorie foods with a Go cue, followed by a block with reversed coupling (order of the training blocks counterbalanced between participants). After each training, there was a snacking opportunity during which calorie intake was measured. Against our pre-registered hypotheses, the N2 amplitudes were not affected by calorie-content and there was no training-related modulation in the N2. Additionally, food intake did not differ between the preceding training blocks and the N2 amplitude did not predict food intake. Our study suggests that the link between N2 obtained in a food-related Go/No-Go task and impulse control is not clear-cut and may be limited to specific task characteristics. The results are of high importance as they question previously assumed mechanism of Go/No-Go training in food-related inhibitory control.