Attention, inhibition and food: a neuroscientific investigation of eating disorders and obesity

Eating disorders (ED, i.e. anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating) and obesity have been linked to attentional biases for and altered inhibition of responses to food stimuli. However, these two groups of patients have rarely been investigated together in the same studies. The goal of this study is to fill this gap in the literature by investigating subliminal visual processing of food stimuli and response inhibition in both ED patients and overweight/obese participants. Seventy-four participants (25 ED patients, 24 overweight and obese, and 25 healthy controls) were enrolled in this study. Subliminal processing of food and non-food stimuli was measured with a breaking continuous flash suppression (bCFS) task, while impulsivity was measured with a Go/No-Go task. Among participants with ED symptoms, higher BMI predicted faster awareness in the bCFS task, especially of food images compared to non-food images, and shorter RTs to food Go cues in the Go/No-Go task. Altered subliminal processing of and heightened attention for food stimuli was found in patients who suffered from both dysfunctional eating habits and obesity. These results demonstrate the need to also include obese participants in future studies on processing biases in ED patients, to better understand attentional biases for food.