Emotional eating and routine restraint scores are associated with activity in brain regions involved in urge and self-control. Physiol Behav 2016 10 15;165:405-12
Date
08/31/2016Pubmed ID
27575974Pubmed Central ID
PMC5036966DOI
10.1016/j.physbeh.2016.08.024Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84985024344 19 CitationsAbstract
Researchers have proposed a variety of behavioral traits that may lead to weight gain and obesity; however, little is known about the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying these weight-related eating behaviors. In this study, we measured activation of reward circuitry during a task requiring response and inhibition to food stimuli. We assessed participants' emotional eating, external eating, and two subscales of dietary restraint-routine restraint and compensatory restraint-using the Weight-Related Eating Questionnaire. For routine restraint, we found positive associations with activation in the insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex in response to high-calorie versus low-calorie foods. For emotional eating, we found positive associations with insula and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation in response to high-calorie versus low-calorie foods. We also found positive associations between emotional eating and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation in response to approach versus inhibition towards high-calorie foods. Thus, our results demonstrate an increase in activation across brain regions related to self-control and urges in response to high-calorie food associated with both emotional eating and routine restraint. Overall, these results support the construct validity of both emotional eating and routine restraint and provide preliminary evidence that these subscales have similar neural correlates.
Author List
Wood SM, Schembre SM, He Q, Engelmann JM, Ames SL, Bechara AMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdolescentBody Mass Index
Brain
Brain Mapping
Eating
Emotions
Energy Intake
Feeding Behavior
Female
Food
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neuropsychological Tests
Oxygen
Self-Control
Surveys and Questionnaires
Young Adult
