Abstract
The Iowa gambling task (IGT) is an instrument for the neuropsychological evaluation of cognitive and emotional decision making (DM) processes that was created to test the somatic marker hypothesis (SMH) described by Damasio in 1994. It was initially applied to patients with frontal lobe lesions due to its association with executive functions but was subsequently used on patients with a variety of disorders. Although the DM process is inherently perceptual, few studies have applied the IGT to examine DM processes in patients with eating disorders (EDs), and even fewer have associated the IGT to the perceptual distortion of body image (PDBI) in this population. People diagnosed with ED exhibit heightened control over their somatic responses—for example, they can delay digestion for hours—and DM may be affected in this condition. This study compares the performance of two samples of adolescent women—hospitalized patients with ED, and healthy controls with similar demographic characteristics—on the IGT using body image as a possible factor in the SMH. Seventy-four women with a mean age of 14.97 years (SD = 2.347) participated. To analyze their body self-image, we used the figure-rating scale and compared the results with their body mass index (BMI). Correlations between indices of the IGT and distortion in body image were then explored. The results revealed significant differences between the groups in terms of evolving performance on the partial IGT. Patients with ED performed worse than their healthy counterparts in the last 40 trials and exhibited greater distortions in their body image, especially in terms of overestimation. Indices of these distortions were negatively correlated with the total IGT. These results are compatible with the SMH because they suggest that patients with ED evinced blindness with regard to the future, as described by their authors. In addition, a negative correlation was found between the IGT and PDBI, showing that a more distorted body image was associated with lower IGT, that is, more disadvantageous or riskier decisions were made by the subjects with more distortion.
Highlights
Decision making (DM) encompasses multiple and varied situations, ranging from the simplest choice of constant everyday decisions to the most complex situations at crucial points in our lives
Seventy-four female volunteers with a mean age of 14.97 years (SD = 2.347) participated in this study. They were separated into two groups: an eating disorders (EDs) group, consisting of women hospitalized with EDs (n = 23), with an average age of 15.13 years (SD = 2.528), all ED group patients were hospitalized by anorexia nervosa except for one patient with bulimia
No significant differences were observed between the groups in age [t(74) = 0.385 and p = 0.701] or socioeconomic level [U(74) = 553.5; p = 0.658] in a questionnaire administered to parents included a scale of three options: (1) Rental housing/VPO, (2) mortgaged home, and (3) home ownership
Summary
Decision making (DM) encompasses multiple and varied situations, ranging from the simplest choice of constant everyday decisions to the most complex situations at crucial points in our lives. In such situations, cognitive processes and neurological, somatic, and emotional structures are involved in initiating, supervising, controlling, and evaluating our behavior. Cognitive processes and neurological, somatic, and emotional structures are involved in initiating, supervising, controlling, and evaluating our behavior These neurological systems are involved in executive functions (FFEE) and higher psychological processes. Recent neuroscientific studies have shown that emotions are crucial in the DM process Decisions and their consequences imply emotions, and many of our choices are guided by past emotional experiences or their anticipation. It was used initially on patients with frontal lobe damage and was subsequently administered to people with a wide variety of psychopathologies
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
