Search

BackgroundAlthough autism and callous-unemotional (CU) traits are distinct conditions, both are associated with difficulties in emotion recognition. However, it is unknown whether the emotion recognition difficulties characteristic of autism and CU traits are driven by comparable underpinning mechanisms.MethodsWe tested whether cueing to the eyes improved emotion recognition in relation to autistic and CU traits in a heterogeneous sample of children enhanced for social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Participants were 171 (n = 75 male) children aged 10–16 years with and without a diagnosis of autism (n = 99 autistic), who completed assessments of emotion recognition with and without cueing to the eyes. Parents completed the assessment of autistic and CU traits.ResultsAssociations between autistic and CU traits and emotion recognition accuracy were dependent upon gaze cueing. CU traits were associated with an overall decrease in emotion recognition in the uncued condition, but better fear recognition when cued to the eyes. Conversely, autistic traits were associated with decreased emotion recognition in the cued condition only, and no interactions between autistic traits and emotion were found.ConclusionsThe differential effect of cueing to the eyes in autistic and CU traits suggests different mechanisms underpin emotion recognition abilities. Results suggest interventions designed to promote looking to the eyes may be beneficial for children with CU traits, but not for children with autistic characteristics. Future developmental studies of autism and CU characteristics are required to better understand how different pathways lead to overlapping socio-cognitive profiles.

Background Anhedonia – a diminished interest or pleasure in activities – is a core self-reported symptom of depression which is poorly understood and often resistant to conventional antidepressants. This symptom may occur due to dysfunction in one or more sub-components of reward processing: motivation, consummatory experience and/or learning. However, the precise impairments remain elusive. Dissociating these components (ideally, using cross-species measures) and relating them to the subjective experience of anhedonia is critical as it may benefit fundamental biology research and novel drug development. Methods Using a battery of behavioural tasks based on rodent assays, we examined reward motivation (Joystick-Operated Runway Task, JORT; and Effort-Expenditure for Rewards Task, EEfRT) and reward sensitivity (Sweet Taste Test) in a non-clinical population who scored high (N = 32) or low (N = 34) on an anhedonia questionnaire (Snaith–Hamilton Pleasure Scale). Results Compared to the low anhedonia group, the high anhedonia group displayed marginal impairments in effort-based decision-making (EEfRT) and reduced reward sensitivity (Sweet Taste Test). However, we found no evidence of a difference between groups in physical effort exerted for reward (JORT). Interestingly, whilst the EEfRT and Sweet Taste Test correlated with anhedonia measures, they did not correlate with each other. This poses the question of whether there are subgroups within anhedonia; however, further work is required to directly test this hypothesis. Conclusions Our findings suggest that anhedonia is a heterogeneous symptom associated with impairments in reward sensitivity and effort-based decision-making.

BACKGROUND Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) interventions are being developed and trialled for use in the treatment of eating disorders. However, little work has explored the opinions of people with eating disorders, or the clinicians who treat them, on the possible use of VR in this context. OBJECTIVE To use qualitative methodology to explore the views of people with eating disorders, and clinicians who treat them, on the possible use of VR in the treatment of eating disorders. METHODS We conducted a series of focus groups and interviews with people with lived experience of eating disorders and clinicians on their views about VR and how it could potentially be used in eating disorders treatment. We took a thematic approach to analysing the resulting qualitative data. RESULTS We conducted focus groups with ten individuals with a current or previous eating disorder, and individual interviews with four clinicians experienced in treating people with eating disorders. We describe themes around representing the body in VR, potential therapeutic uses for VR, the strengths and limitations of VR in this context and the practicalities of delivering VR therapy. Suggested therapeutic uses included: to practice challenging situations around food-related and weight/appearance related scenarios and interactions, to retrain attention, the representation of the body, to represent the eating disorder, for psychoeducation and to enable therapeutic conversations with oneself. There was substantial agreement between the groups on these themes. CONCLUSIONS Participants in both groups were generally enthusiastic about the potential use of VR in treating eating disorders and generated many ideas as to how it could be used. They were also aware of potential limitations, and expressed the need for caution around how bodies are represented in a VR setting. CLINICALTRIAL NA

BACKGROUND The positive and negative effects of interacting with online content on mental health and especially self-harm, are well documented. Lived experience stories are one such type of static online content, frequently published on healthcare or third sector organization websites, as well as social media and blogs, as a form of support for those seeking help online. OBJECTIVE To increase understanding about how people who self-harm engage with and evaluate online lived experience stories. METHODS Four online focus groups were conducted with thirteen people with recent self-harm experience (aged 16-40 years). Three example lived experience stories were read aloud to participants, who were then asked to share their reactions to the stories. Participants were also encouraged to reflect on stories previously encountered online. Data were analysed thematically. RESULTS Five themes were generated: i) stories of recovery from self-harm and their emotional impact; ii) impact on self-help and help-seeking behaviors; iii) identifying with the narrator; iv) authenticity; v) language and stereotyping. CONCLUSIONS Lived experience stories published online can provide a valuable form of support for those experiencing self-harm. They can be motivating and empowering for the reader, as well as having the potential to distract from urges to self-harm. However, these effects are moderated by age, and narratives of recovery may demoralise older readers. Our findings have implications for organizations publishing lived experience content, and for community guidelines and moderators of online forums in which users share their stories. These include the need to consider the narrator’s age, relatability and authenticity of their journey, and to avoid using stigmatizing language.

BackgroundEmotional dysregulation may be a risk factor for disordered eating and self-harm in young people, but few prospective studies have assessed these associations long-term, or considered potential mediators. We examined prospective relationships between childhood emotional dysregulation and disordered eating and self-harm in adolescence; and social cognition, emotional recognition and being bullied as mediators.MethodsWe analysed Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children data on 3453 males and 3481 females. We examined associations between emotional dysregulation at 7 years and any disordered eating and any self-harm at 16 years with probit regression models. We also assessed whether social cognition (7 years), emotional recognition (8 years) and bullying victimisation (11 years) mediated these relationships.ResultsEmotional dysregulation at age 7 years was associated with disordered eating (fully adjusted probit B (95% CI) = 0.082 (0.029, 0.134)) and self-harm (fully adjusted probit B (95% CI) = 0.093 (0.036, 0.150)) at age 16 years. There was no evidence of sex interactions or difference in effects between self-harm and disordered eating. Mediation models found social cognition was a key pathway to disordered eating (females 51.2%; males 27.0% of total effect) and self-harm (females 15.7%; males 10.8% of total effect). Bullying victimisation was an important pathway to disordered eating (females 17.1%; males 10.0% of total effect), but only to self-harm in females (15.7% of total effect). Indirect effects were stronger for disordered eating than self-harm.ConclusionsIn males and females, emotional dysregulation in early childhood is associated with disordered eating and self-harm in adolescence and may be a useful target for prevention and treatment. Mediating pathways appeared to differ by sex and outcome, but social cognition was a key mediating pathway for both disordered eating and self-harm.

Body dissatisfaction is defined as the negative subjective evaluation of one’s body and is considered a risk factor for, and symptom of, eating disorders. Some studies show women with high body dissatisfaction display an attentional bias towards low weight bodies; however, this finding is not consistent, and results are yet to be systematically synthesised. We conducted a qualitative and quantitative synthesis of cross-sectional studies investigating the relationship between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to low weight bodies in non-clinical samples of women. We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, ProQuest, and OpenGrey for studies up until September 2022. We identified 34 eligible studies involving a total of 2857 women. A meta-analysis of 26 studies (75 effects) found some evidence from gaze tracking studies for a positive association between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to low weight bodies. We found no evidence for an association from studies measuring attention using the dot probe task, electroencephalogram (EEG) recording, or the modified spatial cueing task. The results together provide partial support for the positive association between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to low weight bodies in women. These findings can be used to inform future attentional bias research.

Background: The Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the United Kingdom is a system to assess the quality of research, requiring higher education institutions to select a sample of research outputs to submit for assessment. We tested whether prediction markets, in a novel application, could help institutions decide which research outputs to submit to the REF. Methods: Prediction markets are tools used to aggregate knowledge from a group who trade on the outcomes of future events. We ran six different prediction markets across three institutions in four different academic fields, asking participants to predict which papers in their department would score above a certain threshold in the REF.Results: Despite low participation in some markets, overall the prediction markets predicted mock REF outcomes with greater than 70% accuracy. We also compared the results of one market to random forests and logistic regression models trained to predict REF scores using bibliometrics, and found they had similar accuracy with prediction markets and high correlation with final market price, suggesting trades were partly informed by publication metrics. Conclusions: Our study provides a proof of concept that prediction markets can be used to forecast REF ratings, and that they capture similar information to other methods. Due to their pragmatic limitations, prediction markets are unlikely to entirely replace other methods of REF selection or research assessment, but they may offer a useful addition to REF selection and may be valuable in training contexts.

Studies suggest that an attentional bias to thin bodies is common amongst those with high levels of body dissatisfaction, which is a risk factor for, and symptom of, various eating disorders. However, these studies have predominantly been conducted in Western countries with body stimuli involving images of White people. In a preregistered study, we recruited 150 Malaysian Chinese women and 150 White Australian women for a study using standardised images of East Asian and White Australian bodies. To measure attentional bias to thin bodies, participants completed a dot probe task which presented images of women who self-identified their ethnicity as East Asian or as White Australian. Contrary to previous findings, we found no evidence for an association between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to thin bodies. This lack of association was not affected by participant ethnicity (Malaysian Chinese vs. White Australian) or ethnic congruency between participants and body stimuli (own-ethnicity vs. other-ethnicity). However, the internal consistency of the dot probe task was poor. These results suggest that either the relationship between body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to thin bodies is not robust, or the dot probe task may not be a reliable measure of attentional bias to body size.

Attentional bias to low-fat bodies is thought to be associated with body dissatisfaction—a symptom and risk factor of eating disorders. However, the causal nature of this relationship is unclear. In three preregistered experiments, we trained 370 women to attend towards either high- or low-fat body stimuli using an attention training dot probe task. For each experiment, we analysed the effect of the attention training on (i) attention to subsequently presented high- versus low-fat body stimuli, (ii) visual adaptation to body size, and (iii) body dissatisfaction. The attention training had no effect on attention towards high- or low-fat bodies in an online setting (Experiment 1), but did increase attention to high-fat bodies in a laboratory setting (Experiment 2). Neither perceptions of a ‘normal’ body size nor levels of body dissatisfaction changed as a result of the attention training in either setting. The results in the online setting did not change when we reduced the stimulus onset-asynchrony of the dot probe task from 500 to 100 ms (Experiment 3). Our results provide no evidence that the dot probe training task used here has robust effects on attention to body size, body image disturbance or body dissatisfaction.

Background: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) was previously associated with negative affective biases. Evidence from larger population-based studies, however, is lacking, including whether biases normalise with remission. We investigated associations between affective bias measures and depressive symptom severity across a large community-based sample, followed by examining differences between remitted individuals and controls.Methods: Participants from Generation Scotland (N=1,109) completed the: (i) Bristol Emotion Recognition Task (BERT), (ii) Face Affective Go/No-go (FAGN), and (iii) Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT). Individuals were classified as MDD-current (n=43), MDD-remitted (n=282), or controls (n=784). Analysis included using affective bias summary measures (primary analyses), followed by detailed emotion/condition analyses of BERT and FAGN (secondary analyses). Results: For summary measures, the only significant finding was an association between greater symptoms and lower risk adjustment for CGT across the sample (individuals with greater symptoms were less likely to bet more, despite increasingly favourable conditions). This was no longer significant when controlling for non-affective cognition. No differences were found for remitted-MDD v controls. Detailed analysis of BERT and FAGN indicated subtle negative biases across multiple measures of affective cognition with increasing symptom severity, that were independent of non-effective cognition (e.g. greater tendency to rate faces as angry (BERT), and lower accuracy for happy/neutral conditions (FAGN)). Results for remitted-MDD were less consistent.Conclusions: This suggests the presence of subtle negative affective biases at the level of emotion/condition in association with depressive symptoms across the sample, over and above those accounted for by g, with no evidence for affective biases in remitted individuals.

Background: Body dissatisfaction is a key part of the psychopathology of eating disorders, but there is a lack of consensus as to whether the dissatisfaction arises from misperception of body size, and if such misperception applies to others’ as well as own size. Methods: We conducted a case control study of women with and without an eating disorder, confirmed using the Eating Disorders Examination. We used a range of measures to investigate differences between groups in their perception of others’ and own body size, and satisfaction with own size, including rating photographs of other women, manipulating an avatar to “own” and “ideal” size, and novel implicit measures (Lexical Decision and Implicit Association Tasks). Results: We recruited 30 cases and 30 controls. Cases rated 12% more photographs of other women as overweight and 7% fewer as underweight, even after adjusting for participant BMI. We found no evidence for a difference between groups in the accuracy of their avatar representation of own size, but cases rated themselves as larger using a VAS scale and had a smaller avatar-demonstrated “ideal BMI” (case ideal BMI: 15.5 (95% CI 14.1, 16.9); control ideal BMI: 21.6 (95% CI 21.6 (20.4, 22.8)). We found no strong evidence for between-group differences on implicit measures. Discussion: Our results suggest that people with eating disorders are equally accurate at judging size, but have lower set points for their view of “normal weight” than controls. This lower threshold for what constitutes “normal” weight may contribute to patients with eating disorders’ dissatisfaction with their own size.

Background: Body dissatisfaction is a key feature of eating disorders. It is measured using questionnaires asking about satisfaction with body parts, or how feelings about weight and shape influence behaviour. Qualitative research finds that women most frequently use clothing to manage their appearance. Methods: We designed an Outfit Choice Task to assess clothing choice. We compared it with existing measures of body dissatisfaction in: Study 1, (online study of 244 women); Study 2 (face-to-face study of 93 women); and Study 3 (case-control study of 30 women with, and 30 without, a diagnosed eating disorder). Results: The Outfit Choice Task factor analysed into five factors comprising different types of outfit. Scores were strongly associated with existing measures of body dissatisfaction, after adjusting for Body Mass Index and age. Mean scores were lower (greater dissatisfaction) in those with an eating disorder (4.22 (95% 3.91, 4.52)) than controls (5.35 (95% CI 5.05, 5.64)). Discussion: The Outfit Choice Task provides a novel way of measuring body dissatisfaction. Since women are most likely to use clothing to manage concerns with their appearance, this scale is likely to be very relevant to women, and has potential use for measuring change in body dissatisfaction.