Food Attentional Bias Research Articles

Effect of body-related information on food attentional bias in women with body weight dissatisfaction

Women with body weight dissatisfaction (BWD) have long-term negative assessments of their body weight, which are often associated with poor eating behavior. In this study, we investigated the effect of body-related information on the food cue processing and attention of women with BWD. Sixty-eight women were recruited and assigned to either a BWD (NPSS-F > 2) (n = 32) or a no body weight dissatisfaction (NBWD) group (NPSS-F < 1) (n = 36). We measured attentional bias to food cues (high- and low-calorie) with a food probe task after exposure to body-related information and recorded eye tracking data. Body-related images were presented prior to a pair of stimulus images (food–neutral or neutral–neutral). Body-related information and food type were repeated measure factors in our study. Our results showed that the first fixation duration bias for high-calorie foods was significantly longer than for low-calorie foods after exposure to overweight cues in the BWD group. Compared with the NBWD group, the BWD group showed longer first fixation duration bias for high-calorie foods after exposure to overweight cues. The direction for high-calorie foods was significantly more often than that for low-calorie foods in the BWD group after exposure to body-related information. Our findings suggest that compared to women with NBWD, women with BWD may be more susceptible to body-related information, resulting in increased attention to high-calorie foods.

Food Attentional Bias and Eating Disordered symptomology: The moderating role of cognitive reappraisal

IntroductionCognitive reappraisal (CR) is a cognitive regulation strategy aimed at changing how people think about certain stimuli in order to change their emotional impact. CR strategies have been used in research to try to change eating behaviors and other food-related responses. This study is the first to use a behavioral measurement to examine the effect of CR on food attentional bias (FAB) in people with elevated FAB.ObjectivesIt was hypothesized that CR would reduce FAB. Ninety-five participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: CR, upregulation (UP) or controls (CN).MethodsAll participants performed a computerized Visual Dot Probe (VDP) task using food stimuli to measure their FAB before and after the manipulation. The CR group recited five sentences aimed at curtailing the reward of high caloric food. Participants in the UP group recited five sentences aimed at strengthening the reward of high caloric food. The CN group recited five mundane sentences about their day. Participants also self-reported on eating disordered symptomology and BMI.ResultsPeople with elevated FAB had more disordered eating than people low on FAB. A significant interaction was observed between group and time (pre/post-test), with the lowest FAB levels in the CR group following the manipulation.ConclusionsCR, a self-administered strategy can be effective in reducing FAB. CR may be an effective strategy for developing resistance to tempting food stimuli and curbing high caloric food intake. Being highly attentive to food cues may contribute to obesity. The attentional bias paradigm can be used to detect early signs of FAB.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Food Attention Bias: appetite comes with eating

ObjectiveCognitive interventions may be effective in weight loss. The purpose of this study was to assess if cognitive reappraisal (CR; reframing the meaning of a stimulus in order to change the resulting emotional response), can reduce food attentional bias (FAB) using the Visual Dot Probe (VDP) paradigm.Method126 participants (age 27 ± 5.8) were randomly assigned either to a CR or to a control (CN) group. After assessing baseline VDP levels for FAB, participants either wrote sentences that discourage eating fattening food or neutral sentences. Next, all participants performed the VDP post intervention. Participants also self-reported on disordered eating behaviors and their height and weight were charted. We hypothesized that CR would reduce FAB and that disordered eating would moderate the association between group and FAB.ResultsFAB decreased post intervention, specifically in the CR group. The bulimia sub-scale showed an interaction between bulimic eating, time and group. Among those who were high on the bulimia scale, the CR group showed lower FAB post-intervention compared to the CN group.DiscussionThis study suggests that CR may decrease the attentional bias toward high-calorie food compared to other strategies in the general population and among people with high bulimia measures, in particular.Plain English summaryObesity has a negative impact on many aspects of life and much research is dedicated to trying to better understand behaviors concerning obesity. People are prone to focus their attention on things that are of importance to them, such as food. When people focus their attention on food, we call this Food Attention Bias (FAB). Cognitive reappraisal (CR) interventions involve the person's conscious cognitive change of the meaning of the situation aiming to consequently change the emotional response to it, such as saying to yourself “I shouldn’t eat this because I don’t want to get fat”. CR has been found to be helpful in lowering FAB using brain imagining techniques but has not yet been studied in cognitive processes. Our study used a Visual dot probe paradigm (VDP) to assess the efficacy of CR on lowering FAB. Two groups, one using CR and a control group were assessed twice on FAB, using the VDP paradigm. Compared to the normal condition, the CR intervention helped reduce FAB. This reduction was especially significant for people with a higher tendency for bulimic behavior. The VDP paradigm, utilizing CR. can be expanded to help build an intervention aimed at reducing FAB over time. This, in turn might bring to weight reduction. People with bulimic tendencies might especially benefit from CR interventions when dealing with weight loss.

Associations of somatic depressive symptoms with food attentional bias and eating behaviors

Recent evidence suggests that atypical major depressive disorder (MDD) – whose key features include the reversed somatic symptoms of hyperphagia (increased appetite) and hypersomnia (increased sleep) – is a stronger predictor of future obesity than other MDD subtypes. The mechanisms underlying this relationship are unclear. The present study sought to elucidate whether the individual symptoms of hyperphagia, hypersomnia, poor appetite, and disturbed sleep have differential relationships with food attentional bias, emotional eating, external eating, and restrained eating. This cross-sectional laboratory study involved 103 young adults without obesity (mean age = 20 years, 79% female, 26% non-White, mean BMI = 23.4 kg/m2). We measured total depressive symptom severity and individual symptoms of hyperphagia, poor appetite, and disturbed sleep using the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-20 (SCL-20) and added an item to assess hypersomnia; food attentional bias using a Food Stroop task; and self-reported eating behaviors using the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Hyperphagia was positively associated with emotional eating but negatively associated with food attentional bias. Hypersomnia was negatively associated with emotional eating. Poor appetite was negatively associated with emotional eating. Disturbed sleep was positively associated with food attentional bias and emotional eating. An aggregate of the remaining 15 depressive symptoms (SCL-15) was positively associated with emotional and restrained eating. Our findings highlight the importance of examining the direction of somatic depressive symptoms, and they set the stage for future research to identify subgroups of people with depression at greatest risk for obesity (e.g., those with hyperphagia and/or disturbed sleep) and the mechanisms responsible for this elevated risk (e.g., emotional eating).

Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement Restructures Reward Processing and Promotes Interoceptive Awareness in Overweight Cancer Survivors: Mechanistic Results From a Stage 1 Randomized Controlled Trial.

Introduction: The primary aims of this Stage I pilot randomized controlled trial were to establish the feasibility of integrating exercise and nutrition counseling with Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE), a novel intervention that unites training in mindfulness, reappraisal, and savoring skills to target mechanisms underpinning appetitive dysregulation a pathogenic process that contributes to obesity among cancer survivors; to identify potential therapeutic mechanisms of the MORE intervention; and to obtain effect sizes to power a subsequent Stage II trial. Methods: Female overweight and obese cancer survivors (N = 51; mean age = 57.92 ± 10.04; 88% breast cancer history; 96% white) were randomized to one of two 10-week study treatment conditions: (a) exercise and nutrition counseling or (b) exercise and nutrition counseling plus the MORE intervention. Trial feasibility was assessed via recruitment and retention metrics. Measures of therapeutic mechanisms included self-reported interoceptive awareness, maladaptive eating behaviors, and savoring, as well as natural reward responsiveness and food attentional bias, which were evaluated as psychophysiological mechanisms. Results: Feasibility was demonstrated by 82% of participants who initiated MORE receiving a full dose of the intervention. Linear mixed models revealed that the addition of MORE led to significantly greater increases in indices of interoceptive awareness, savoring, and natural reward responsiveness, and, significantly greater decreases in external eating behaviors and food attentional bias—the latter of which was significantly associated with decreases in waist-to-hip ratio. Path analysis demonstrated that the effect of MORE on reducing food attentional bias was mediated by increased zygomatic electromyographic activation during attention to natural rewards. Conclusions and Implications: MORE may target appetitive dysregulatory mechanisms implicated in obesity by promoting interoceptive awareness and restructuring reward responsiveness.

Association between depressive symptom clusters and food attentional bias

BackgroundThe mechanisms underlying the depression-obesity relationship are unclear. Food attentional bias (FAB) represents one candidate mechanism that has not been examined. We evaluated the hypothesis that greater depressive symptoms are associated with increased FAB. MethodParticipants were 89 normal weight or overweight adults (mean age = 21.2 ± 4.0 years, 53% female, 33% non-white, mean body mass index in kg/m2 = 21.9 ± 1.8 for normal weight; 27.2 ± 1.5 for overweight). Total, somatic, and cognitive-affective depressive symptom scores were computed from the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8). FAB scores were calculated using reaction times (RT) and eye-tracking (ET) direction and duration measures for a food visual probe task. Age, gender, race/ethnicity, and body fat percent were covariates. ResultsOnly PHQ-8 somatic symptoms were positively associated with RT-measured FAB (β = 0.23, p = .04). The relationship between somatic symptoms and ET direction (β = 0.18, p = .17) and duration (β = 0.23, p = .08) FAB indices were of similar magnitude but were not significant. Somatic symptoms accounted for 5% of the variance in RT-measured FAB. PHQ-8 total and cognitive-affective symptoms were unrelated to all FAB indices (ps ≥ 0.09). ConclusionsOnly greater somatic symptoms of depression were linked to food attentional bias as measured using reaction time. Well-powered prospective studies should examine whether this bias replicates, particularly for eye-tracking measures, and whether it partially mediates the depression-to-obesity relationship.

The effect of attentional bias modification training on food intake in overweight and obese women.

This study modified food attentional biases via computerized attentional bias modification training and examined the effects on food intake. Overweight women were randomly allocated to (1) direct attention away from food ("attentional-training"), (2) direct attention at random to food or neutral ("placebo"), or (3) no training ("control"). Individuals then completed a taste test. Those in the attentional-training consumed on average 600 kJ less of total food compared to the placebo. Those in the attentional-training had a reduction in food attentional bias compared to the placebo group, when controlling for executive function. Attentional-training seems to reduce high-calorie intake in overweight women.

Computer training of attention and inhibition for youngsters with obesity: A pilot study

Obesity is a widespread problem that starts from an early age. Previous studies suggest that obese youngsters have an attentional bias and an automatic approach tendency towards high-calorie food and display difficulties inhibiting impulses, which may result in a higher intake of (high-calorie) food. An interesting idea for improvement of the current obesity treatment is adding a program that enables to train their difficulties. Subjects were 36 youngsters aged 9–15 years old from an inpatient treatment program for obesity, randomized over a training group and an active control group. The training consisted of six training sessions with cognitive tasks aimed at enhancing inhibition towards unhealthy food items (with a go/no-go task), as well as decreasing a food approach bias (using an approach/avoidance task) and a food attentional bias (using a dot-probe task). The current study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability and initial effectiveness of the training and explores if these characteristics helps obese youngsters to maintain weight-loss once they return home at the end of their inpatient treatment program. Results on the cognitive performances were investigated during two measurement sessions, spread over 5 weeks while weight evolution was followed over 13 weeks. Results showed that the training program was feasible and acceptable to the majority of participants and clinicians. Furthermore, the preliminary findings suggest that the training tasks used were ineffective in this group of obese children. Lessons learned and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Loss of lateral prefrontal cortex control in food-directed attention and goal-directed food choice in obesity

Loss of lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC)-mediated attentional control may explain the automatic tendency to eat in the face of food. Here, we investigate the neurocognitive mechanism underlying attentional bias to food words and its association with obesity using a food Stroop task. We tested 76 healthy human subjects with a wide body mass index (BMI) range (19–35kg/m2) using fMRI. As a measure of obesity we calculated individual obesity scores based on BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio using principal component analyses. To investigate the automatic tendency to overeat directly, the same subjects performed a separate behavioral outcome devaluation task measuring the degree of goal-directed versus automatic food choices. We observed that increased obesity scores were associated with diminished lPFC responses during food attentional bias. This was accompanied by decreased goal-directed control of food choices following outcome devaluation. Together these findings suggest that deficient control of both food-directed attention and choice may contribute to obesity, particularly given our obesogenic environment with food cues everywhere, and the choice to ignore or indulge despite satiety.

A Combi-Stroop test for measuring food-related attentional bias.

There are methodological complexities with the supraliminal-lexical versions of the modified versions of the Stroop tests that could be responsible for inconsistencies across the literature (Field & Cox, 2008). We tested whether a combination of subliminal-pictorial and classic Stroop tests can differentiate between dieters' and nondieters' food attentional bias (FAB). Participants were dieters (n = 30) and nondieters (n = 32) who were tested 3 hr after having a meal. Each picture from among 24 high-calorie and 24 low-calorie food pictures was presented for 32 ms before the appearance of a congruent or an incongruent color word, in response to which participants were required to manually report, via a tagged keyboard, the correct color of the word as quickly and accurately as possible. Color-naming latencies and interference scores were calculated. Dieters showed the highest reaction times to incongruent color words following high-calorie food pictures; overall, dieters showed significantly higher FABs than nondieters. The Combi-Stroop test has differential validity. Moreover, findings suggest that FAB can result from early allocation of dieters' attention to food-related stimuli.