1. Emotional food cue reactivity in Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa: An electroencephalography study
- Author
-
Katharina Eichin, Claudio Georgii, Rebekka Schnepper, Ulrich Voderholzer, and Jens Blechert
- Abstract
Objective: Food cue reactivity entails neural and experiential responses to the sight of attractive foods. Negative emotions can modulate such cue reactivity and this might be central to the balance between restrictive versus bulimic symptomatology in Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and Bulimia Nervosa (BN). Method: Pleasantness ratings and electrocortical responses to food images were measured in patients with AN (n=35), BN (n=32) and matched healthy controls (HC, n=35) in a neutral state and after negative emotion induction while EEG was recorded. The EEG-data was analysed using a mass testing approach. Results: Individuals with AN showed reduced pleasantness for foods alongside elevated widespread occipito-central food-object discrimination between 170 and 535 ms, indicative of strong neural cue reactivity. They also showed an emotional modulation of this cue reactivity between 690 and 1200 ms over centroparietal regions. Neither of these effects were seen in individuals with BN. Discussion: Emotion modulated food cue reactivity in AN was unexpected and requires more theoretical and clinical attention to specific (emotion-)regulatory strategies in AN. The absence of these effects in BN patients suggests that cue reactivity might be specific to certain foods, specific affective conditions or a combination of both.
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF