Abstract :
Keywords Pain; Capsaicin; Food cues; Event-related potential Highlights * Whether pain can modulate individuals' preferences for foods was studied. * AnERP study was conducted to investigate the modulation of capsaicin-induced pain on food preference with food images. * Both P3 and LPP amplitudes were larger for low-calorie non-spicy food cues during the painful than the control treatment. * Capsaicin-induced pain increases individuals' neural processing of low-calorie non-spicy food cues. Abstract Capsaicin, the main spicy ingredient in chili, can activate pain receptors on the human tongue and skin. Although some studies have determined that pain influenced preference for high-calorie foods, little is known whether pain can modulate the individuals' preference for spicy foods and its neural mechanisms. After 30 participants underwent painful (topical capsaicin cream) and control (hand cream) treatments, an event-related potential (ERP) study was conducted to investigate the modulation of capsaicin-induced pain on food preference with food images. Results showed that both P3 and late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes during the painful treatment were significantly larger than those during the control treatment for low-calorie non-spicy food cues. However, for the other three categories of food cues, there were no significant differences between the two treatments. The present study suggests that capsaicin-induced pain increases individuals' neural processing of low-calorie non-spicy food cues, which provides empirical evidence on the relationship between pain and neural responses to food cues to help optimize dietary interventions for patients experiencing pain. Author Affiliation: (a) Key Laboratory of Applied Psychology, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, 401331, China (b) Research Center for Brain and Cognitive Science, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, China * Corresponding author at: Key Laboratory of Applied Psychology, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, 401331, China. Article History: Received 26 February 2022; Revised 25 July 2022; Accepted 10 August 2022 Byline: Wanchen Li (a,b), Peiyi Liu (a,b), Zuoshan Li (a,b), Jing Meng [qufumj@qq.com] (a,b,*)