Dyscontrol in Women with Bulimia Nervosa: Lack of Inhibitory Control over Motor, Cognitive, and Emotional Responses in Women with Bulimia Nervosa

Abstract Background Studies on food cue reactivity have documented that altered responses to high-calorie food are associated with bulimic symptomatology, however, alterations in sexual motivations and behaviors are also associated clinical features in this population, which justify their inclusion as a research target. Here, we study responses to erotic cues—alongside food, neutral and aversive cues—to gain an understanding of specificity to food versus a generalized sensitivity to primary reinforcers. Methods We recorded peripheral psychophysiological indices –the startle reflex, zygomaticus, and corrugator responses—and self-reported emotional responses (valence, arousal, and dominance) in 75 women completing the Bulimia Test-Revised (BULIT-R). Multiple regression analysis tested whether BULIT-R symptoms were predicted by self-reported and psychophysiological responses to food versus neutral and erotic versus neutral images. Results The results showed that individuals with higher bulimic symptoms were characterized by potentiated eye blink startle response during binge food (vs. neutral images) and more positive valence ratings during erotic (vs. neutral) cues. Conclusions The results highlight the negative emotional reactivity of individuals with elevated bulimic symptoms toward food cues, which could be related to the risk of progression to full bulimia nervosa and thereby addressed in prevention efforts. Results also point to the potential role of reactivity to erotic content, at least on a subjective level. Theoretical models of eating disorders should widen their conceptual scope to consider reactivity to a broader spectrum of primary reinforcers, which would have implications for cue exposure-based treatments. Plain English summary We examined appetitive and aversive cue responses in college women to investigate how bulimic symptoms relate to primary reinforcers such as food and erotic images. We recorded peripheral psychophysiological indices (the startle reflex, zygomaticus, and corrugator responses) and self-reported emotional responses (valence, arousal, and dominance) in 75 college women that were presented with the Spanish version of the Bulimia Test-Revised. The results showed that bulimic symptoms increase both psychophysiological defensiveness toward food cues and subjective pleasure toward erotic cues. The findings suggest a generalized sensitivity to primary reinforcers in the presence of bulimic symptoms, and emphasize the relevance of adopting a wider framework in research and treatment on bulimia nervosa.

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Impulsiveness in Patients with Bulimia Nervosa: Electrophysiological Evidence of Reduced Inhibitory Control

Neuropsychobiology ◽

10.1159/000352016 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 68 (2) ◽

pp. 116-123 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Eleonora Merlotti ◽

Armida Mucci ◽

Umberto Volpe ◽

Valentina Montefusco ◽

Palmiero Monteleone ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bulimia Nervosa ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Electrophysiological Evidence

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The Drunk Utilitarian Revisited: Does Alcohol Really Increase Utilitarianism in Moral Judgment?

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin ◽

10.1177/01461672211052120 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 014616722110521

Author(s):

Mariola Paruzel-Czachura ◽

Katarzyna Pypno ◽

Jim A. C. Everett ◽

Michał Białek ◽

Bertram Gawronski

Keyword(s):

Moral Judgment ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Moral Dilemma ◽

Emotional Responses ◽

Moral Judgments ◽

Formal Modeling ◽

Modeling Approach ◽

Greater Good ◽

Higher Doses ◽

Larger Sample

The “drunk utilitarian” phenomenon suggests that people are more likely to accept harm for the greater good when they are under the influence of alcohol. This phenomenon conflicts with the ideas that (a) acceptance of pro-sacrificial harm requires inhibitory control of automatic emotional responses to the idea of causing harm and (b) alcohol impairs inhibitory control. This preregistered experiment aimed to provide deeper insights into the effects of alcohol on moral judgments by using a formal modeling approach to disentangle three factors in moral dilemma judgments and by distinguishing between instrumental harm and impartial beneficence as two distinct dimensions of utilitarian psychology. Despite the use of a substantially larger sample and higher doses of alcohol compared with the ones in prior studies, alcohol had no significant effect on moral judgments. The results pose a challenge to the idea that alcohol increases utilitarianism in moral judgments.

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Prefrontal responses during proactive and reactive inhibition are differentially impacted by stress in anorexia and bulimia nervosa

10.1101/2020.02.27.968719 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Margaret L. Westwater ◽

Flavia Mancini ◽

Adam X. Gorka ◽

Jane Shapleske ◽

Jaco Serfontein ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bulimia Nervosa ◽

Binge Eating ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Acute Stress ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Proactive Inhibition ◽

Regulatory Control ◽

Reactive Inhibition ◽

Affective States

AbstractBackgroundBinge-eating is a distressing, transdiagnostic eating disorder symptom associated with impulsivity, particularly in negative mood states. Neuroimaging studies of bulimia nervosa (BN) report reduced activity in fronto-striatal regions implicated in self-regulatory control. However, it remains unknown if negative affective states, including stress, impair self-regulation, and, if so, whether such self-regulatory deficits generalize to binge-eating in underweight individuals (i.e., the bingeing/purging subtype of anorexia nervosa; AN-BP).MethodsWe determined the effect of acute stress on inhibitory control in 85 women (33 BN, 22 AN-BP, 30 matched controls). Participants underwent repeated functional MRI scanning, during performance of the stop-signal anticipation task, a validated measure of proactive (i.e., anticipation of stopping) and reactive (outright stopping) inhibition. Neural and behavioral responses to induced, psychological stress and a control task were evaluated on two separate days.ResultsWomen with BN had reduced proactive inhibition while prefrontal responses were increased in both AN-BP and BN. Reactive inhibition was neurally and behaviorally intact in both diagnostic groups. Both AN-BP and BN groups showed distinct, stress-induced changes in prefrontal activity during both proactive and reactive inhibition. However, task performance was not significantly affected by stress.ConclusionsThese findings offer novel evidence of reduced proactive inhibition in BN, yet inhibitory control deficits did not generalize to AN-BP. While both groups showed altered neural responses during inhibition following stress, neither group demonstrated stress-induced performance deficits. As such, our findings counsel against a simplistic, stress-induced failure of regulation as a holistic explanation for binge-eating in these conditions.

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The Drunk Utilitarian Revisited: Does Alcohol Really Increase Utilitarianism in Moral Judgment?

10.31234/osf.io/hb69x ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mariola Paruzel-Czachura ◽

Katarzyna Pypno ◽

Jim Albert Charlton Everett ◽

Michal Bialek ◽

Bertram Gawronski

Keyword(s):

Moral Judgment ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Moral Dilemma ◽

Emotional Responses ◽

Moral Judgments ◽

Formal Modeling ◽

Modeling Approach ◽

Greater Good ◽

Higher Doses ◽

Larger Sample

The “drunk utilitarian” phenomenon suggests that people are more likely to accept harm for the greater good when they are under the influence of alcohol. This phenomenon conflicts with the ideas that (1) acceptance of pro-sacrificial harm requires inhibitory control of automatic emotional responses to the idea of causing harm and (2) alcohol impairs inhibitory control. The current preregistered experiment aimed to provide deeper insights into the effects of alcohol on moral judgments by using a formal modeling approach to disentangle three factors in moral dilemma judgments and by distinguishing between instrumental harm and impartial beneficence as two distinct dimensions of utilitarian psychology. Despite the use of a substantially larger sample and higher doses of alcohol compared to the ones in prior studies, alcohol had no significant effect on moral judgments. The results pose a challenge to the idea that alcohol increases utilitarianism in moral judgments.

Download Full-text