Acute aerobic exercise modulates sweetness-related food preference in individuals with nicotine dependence: the mediating role of prefrontal cortical activity

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Objective This study aimed to examine whether acute aerobic exercise modulates sweetness-related food preference in individuals with nicotine dependence and to further investigate the potential mediating role of prefrontal cortical activity. Methods Sixty male university students with nicotine dependence were randomly assigned to a moderate-intensity exercise group, a high-intensity exercise group, or a rest control group, with 20 participants in each group. Participants in the exercise groups completed a 40-min aerobic cycling session, whereas those in the control group rested quietly for the same duration. Sweetness-related food preference was assessed using a 100-mm visual analogue scale at pre-intervention and immediate post-intervention. During a visual food cue paradigm, functional near-infrared spectroscopy was used to record oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) responses in prefrontal regions of interest under high-sweetness food, low-sweetness food, and non-food control conditions. Results A significant group × time interaction was observed for low-sweetness food preference scores ( p = 0.008), with moderate-intensity exercise significantly increasing preference for low-sweetness foods ( p < 0.001). For cortical responses, moderate-intensity exercise significantly enhanced right orbitofrontal cortex HbO responses under the low-sweetness food condition ( p < 0.001). Correlation analysis showed that changes in low-sweetness food preference were positively associated with changes in right orbitofrontal cortex HbO responses in the moderate-intensity exercise group ( p < 0.001). Exploratory mediation analysis further identified a significant indirect effect through right orbitofrontal cortex HbO responses in the association between moderate-intensity exercise and increased low-sweetness food preference ( B = 6.56, 95% CI [4.29, 9.13]). Conclusion Moderate-intensity acute aerobic exercise may increase preference for low-sweetness food cues in individuals with nicotine dependence, with R-OFC HbO responses showing a potential partial mediating role. These findings provide preliminary neurobehavioral evidence that acute exercise may influence low-sweetness food-cue evaluation in this population.