Contribution of executive functions to eating behaviours in obesity and eating disorders

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 725-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Segura-Serralta ◽  
Sonia Ciscar ◽  
Lorena Blasco ◽  
Javier Oltra-Cucarella ◽  
María Roncero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test ◽  
Central Coherence ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Set Shifting ◽  
Eating Behaviours

AbstractBackground:Patients with eating disorders (ED) or obesity show difficulties in tasks assessing decision-making, set-shifting abilities and central coherence.Aims:The aim of this study was to explore executive functions in eating and weight-related problems, ranging from restricting types of ED to obesity.Method:Two hundred and eighty-eight female participants (75 with obesity; 149 with ED: 76 with restrictive eating, 73 with bingeing-purging symptoms; and 64 healthy controls) were administered the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, the Iowa Gambling Task, and the Group Embedded Figures Test to assess set-shifting, decision-making and central coherence, respectively.Results:Participants with either obesity or ED performed poorly on tests measuring executive functioning compared with healthy controls, even after controlling for age and intelligence. Both participants with obesity and participants with ED showed a preference for global information processing.Conclusions:The findings suggest that treatments for obesity and ED would benefit from addressing difficulties in cognitive functioning, in addition to the more evident clinical symptoms related to eating, body weight and shape.

scholarly journals Decision making under ambiguity and risk in adolescent-onset schizophrenia

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dandan Li ◽  
Fengyan Zhang ◽  
Lu Wang ◽  
Yifan Zhang ◽  
Tingting Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Syndrome Scale ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Abnormal Pattern ◽  
Negative Syndrome ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Objective Numerous studies have identified impaired decision making (DM) under both ambiguity and risk in adult patients with schizophrenia. However, the assessment of DM in patients with adolescent-onset schizophrenia (AOS) has been challenging as a result of the instability and heterogeneity of manifestations. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Game of Dice Task (GDT), which are frequently used to evaluate DM respectively under ambiguity and risk, are sensitive to adolescents and neuropsychiatric patients. Our research intended to examine the performance of DM in a relatively large sample of patients with AOS using the above-mentioned two tasks. We also aimed to take a closer look at the relationship between DM and symptom severity of schizophrenia. Methods We compared the performance of DM in 71 patients with AOS and 53 well-matched healthy controls using IGT for DM under ambiguity and GDT for DM under risk through net scores, total scores and feedback ration. Neuropsychological tests were conducted in all participants. Clinical symptoms were evaluated by using Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) in 71 patients with AOS. Pearson’s correlation revealed the relationship among total score of DM and clinical and neuropsychological data. Results Compared to healthy controls, patients with AOS failed to show learning effect and had a significant difference on the 5th block in IGT and conducted more disadvantageous choices as well as exhibited worse negative feedback rate in GDT. Apart from DM impairment under risk, diminished DM abilities under ambiguity were found related to poor executive function in AOS in the present study. Conclusions Our findings unveiled the abnormal pattern of DM in AOS, mainly reflected under the risky condition, extending the knowledge on the performance of DM under ambiguity and risk in AOS. Inefficient DM under risk may account for the lagging impulse control and the combined effects of developmental disease. In addition, our study demonstrated that the performance on IGT was related to executive function in AOS.

scholarly journals Neuropsychological Learning Deficits as Predictors of Treatment Outcome in Patients with Eating Disorders

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 2145
Author(s):  
Ignacio Lucas ◽  
Romina Miranda-Olivos ◽  
Giulia Testa ◽  
Roser Granero ◽  
Isabel Sánchez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Treatment Outcome ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Control Sample ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Gambling Task ◽  
Learning Deficits ◽  
Starting Point

Eating disorders (EDs) are severe psychiatric illnesses that require individualized treatments. Decision-making deficits have been associated with EDs. Decision-making learning deficits denote a lack of strategies to elaborate better decisions that can have an impact on recovery and response to treatment. This study used the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) to investigate learning differences related to treatment outcome in EDs, comparing between patients with a good and bad treatment outcome and healthy controls. Likewise, the predictive role of impaired learning performance on therapy outcome was explored. Four hundred twenty-four participants (233 ED patients and 191 healthy controls) participated in this study. Decision making was assessed using the Iowa Gambling Task before any psychological treatment. All patients received psychological therapy, and treatment outcome was evaluated at discharge. Patients with bad outcome did not show progression in the decision-making task as opposed to those with good outcome and the healthy control sample. Additionally, learning performance in the decision-making task was predictive of their future outcome. The severity of learning deficits in decision making may serve as a predictor of the treatment. These results may provide a starting point of how decision-making learning deficits are operating as dispositional and motivational factors on responsiveness to treatment in EDs.

Impaired decision-making in symptomatic anorexia and bulimia nervosa patients: a meta-analysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (16) ◽  
pp. 3377-3391 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Guillaume ◽  
P. Gorwood ◽  
F. Jollant ◽  
F. Van den Eynde ◽  
P. Courtet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Eating Disorder ◽  
Bulimia Nervosa ◽  
Acute Phase ◽  
Selection Criteria ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Negative Effect

Background.Impaired decision-making is a potential neurocognitive phenotype of eating disorders. It is therefore important to disentangle the decision-making deficits associated with the eating disorder subtypes and determine whether this putative impairment is a state or trait marker of the disease or more related to starvation. We systematically reviewed the literature on decision-making in eating disorders and conducted a meta-analysis to explore its role in anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge-eating disorder (BED).Method.A search of the Medline and EMBASE databases and article references was performed. A total of 23 studies (2044 participants) met the selection criteria. When the Iowa gambling task (IGT) was used in at least three of the studies, a meta-analysis was run.Results.IGT performance was significantly worse in patients with an eating disorder diagnosis (AN, BN or BED) compared with healthy controls, indicating that eating disorders have a negative effect on decision-making. Hedges’ g effect sizes were moderate to large (−0.72 in AN, −0.62 in BN, and −1.26 in BED). Recovered AN patients had IGT scores similar to those of healthy controls. Restrictive AN patients had significantly lower IGT net scores than purging AN patients, and both AN subtypes had worse performances than healthy controls. Age and body mass index did not explain results.Conclusions.Decision-making was significantly altered in patients with eating disorders. Poor decision-making was more pronounced during the acute phase than in the recovered state of AN. Nutritional status during the acute phase of the disease did not seem to influence decision-making skills.

Decision Making, Working Memory and Executive Functions in Euthymic Bipolar Patients

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
M. Jaracz ◽  
W. Drozdz ◽  
A. Borkowska
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Hamilton Depression Scale ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Bipolar Patients

Aims:Decision making, as well as working memory and executive functions are among the most significant cognitive processes, associated with prefrontal cortex function. Decision making is associated with the orbitofrontal cortex function. Working memory and executive functions are dependent on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Orbitofrontal, as well as dorsolateral prefrontal cortex dysfunction in bipolar disorder has been reported. The aim of the study was to assess decision making and executive functions in euthymic bipolar patients.Methods:The study included 13 euthymic bipolar patients (6 female, 7 male), aged 43±11 years and 11 age, sex and education years matched healthy controls. Decision making was assessed with Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Working memory and executive functions were assessed with Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Trail Making Test (TMT). Depressive and/ or manic symptoms were measured with Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D) and Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS).Results:Euthymic bipolar patients made more nonperseverative errors (t=2,53, p=0,01), gave less conceptual level responses (t=-2,33, p=0,03), completed less categories (t=-1,66, p=0,005) and used more cards to complete first category (t=1,49, p=0,003) in WCST. They also gained less money in IGT (t=-1,34, p=0,03).Conclusions:Bipolar patients performed significantly worse on several measures of WCST. Euthymic bipolar patients gained less money in IGT compared to healthy controls, although no significant differences in responding style in IGT were found.

scholarly journals The Prominent Deck B Phenomenon in Schizophrenia: An Empirical Study on Iowa Gambling Task

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Xu ◽  
We-Kang Lee ◽  
Chih-Hung Ko ◽  
Yao-Chu Chiu ◽  
Ching-Hung Lin
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Gambling Task ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Healthy Participants

Background: The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) was established to evaluate emotion-based decision-making ability under uncertain circumstances in clinical populations, including schizophrenia (Sz). However, there remains a lack of stable behavioral measures regarding discrimination for decision-making performance in IGT between schizophrenic cases and healthy participants. None of the Sz-IGT studies has specifically verified the prominent deck B (PDB) phenomenon gradually revealed in other populations. Here, we provided a global review and empirical study to verify these Sz-IGT issues.Methods: Seeking reliable and valid behavioral measures, we reviewed 38 studies using IGT to investigate decision-making behavior in Sz groups. The IGT, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and clinical symptoms evaluations were administered to 61 schizophrenia or schizoaffective cases diagnosed by psychiatrists and 62 demographically matched healthy participants.Results: There were no valid behavioral measures in IGT that could significantly identify the decision-making dysfunction of Sz. However, Sz cases, on average, made more choices from disadvantageous deck B relative to other decks, particularly in the later learning process (block 3–5). Compared to the control group, the Sz group was more impaired on the WCST. The high-gain frequency decks B and D showed significant correlations with WCST but no correlation between clinical symptoms and IGT/WCST.Conclusions: Gain–loss frequency (GLF) has a dominant and stable impact on the decision-making process in both Sz and control groups. PDB phenomenon is essentially challenging to be observed on the ground of the expected value (EV) viewpoint approach on the IGT in both populations. Consequently, caution should be exercised when launching the IGT to assess the decision-making ability of Sz under a clinical scenario.

Differences in Reward and Persistency characterise Behavior in Chronic Pain for the Iowa Gambling Task in a Web-based Lab-in-the-field study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lili Zhang ◽  
Himanshu Vashisht ◽  
Alekhya Nethra ◽  
Brian Slattery ◽  
Tomas Ward
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Learning Curves ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Gambling Task ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Pain Experiences

BACKGROUND Chronic pain is a significant world-wide health problem. It has been reported that people with chronic pain experience decision-making impairments, but these findings have been based on conventional lab experiments to date. In such experiments researchers have extensive control of conditions and can more precisely eliminate potential confounds. In contrast, there is much less known regarding how chronic pain impacts decision-making captured via lab-in-the-field experiments. Although such settings can introduce more experimental uncertainty, it is believed that collecting data in more ecologically valid contexts can better characterize the real-world impact of chronic pain. OBJECTIVE We aim to quantify decision-making differences between chronic pain individuals and healthy controls in a lab-in-the-field environment through taking advantage of internet technologies and social media. METHODS A cross-sectional design with independent groups was employed. A convenience sample of 45 participants were recruited through social media - 20 participants who self-reported living with chronic pain, and 25 people with no pain or who were living with pain for less than 6 months acting as controls. All participants completed a self-report questionnaire assessing their pain experiences and a neuropsychological task measuring their decision-making, i.e. the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) in their web browser at a time and location of their choice without supervision. RESULTS Standard behavioral analysis revealed no differences in learning strategies between the two groups although qualitative differences could be observed in learning curves. However, computational modelling revealed that individuals with chronic pain were quicker to update their behavior relative to healthy controls, which reflected their increased learning rate (95% HDI from 0.66 to 0.99) when fitted with the VPP model. This result was further validated and extended on the ORL model because higher differences (95% HDI from 0.16 to 0.47) between the reward and punishment learning rates were observed when fitted on this model, indicating that chronic pain individuals were more sensitive to rewards. It was also found that they were less persistent in their choices during the IGT compared to controls, a fact reflected by their decreased outcome perseverance (95% HDI from -4.38 to -0.21) when fitted using the ORL model. Moreover, correlation analysis revealed that the estimated parameters had predictive value for the self-reported pain experiences, suggesting that the altered cognitive parameters could be potential candidates for inclusion in chronic pain assessments. CONCLUSIONS We found that individuals with chronic pain were more driven by rewards and less consistent when making decisions in our lab-in-the-field experiment. In this case study, it was demonstrated that compared to standard statistical summaries of behavioral performance, computational approaches offered superior ability to resolve, understand and explain the differences in decision- making behavior in the context of chronic pain outside the lab.

scholarly journals Neuronal variability of Resting State activity in Eating Disorders: increase and decoupling in Ventral Attention Network and relation with clinical symptoms

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 10-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela V. Spalatro ◽  
Federico Amianto ◽  
Zirui Huang ◽  
Federico D’Agata ◽  
Mauro Bergui ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level ◽  
Attention Network ◽  
State Activity ◽  
New Perspective

AbstractBackground:Despite the great number of resting state functional connectivity studies on Eating Disorders (ED), no biomarkers could be detected yet. Therefore, we here focus on a different measure of resting state activity that is neuronal variability. The objective of this study was to investigate neuronal variability in the resting state of women with ED and to correlate possible differences with clinical and psychopathological indices.Methods:58 women respectively 25 with Anorexia Nervosa (AN), 16 with Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and 17 matched healthy controls (CN) were enrolled for the study. All participants were tested with a battery of psychometric tests and underwent a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) resting state scanning. We investigated topographical patterns of variability measured by the Standard Deviation (SD) of the Blood-Oxygen-Level-Dependent (BOLD) signal (as a measure of neuronal variability) in the resting-state and their relationship to clinical and psychopathological indices.Results:Neuronal variability was increased in both anorectic and bulimic subjects specifically in the Ventral Attention Network (VAN) compared to healthy controls. No significant differences were found in the other networks. Significant correlations were found between neuronal variability of VAN and various clinical and psychopathological indices.Conclusions:We here show increased neuronal variability of VAN in ED patients. As the VAN is relevant for switching between endogenous and exogenous stimuli, our results showing increased neuronal variability suggest unstable balance between body attention and attention to external world. These results offer new perspective on the neurobiological basis of ED. Clinical and therapeutic implication will be discussed.

scholarly journals Automatic Intra-/Extra-Dimensional Attentional Set-Shifting Task in Adolescent Mice

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariasole Ciampoli ◽  
Diego Scheggia ◽  
Francesco Papaleo
Keyword(s):  
Executive Functions ◽  
Neuropsychological Test ◽  
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test ◽  
Set Shifting ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Attentional Set ◽  
Attentional Set Shifting ◽  
Wisconsin Card Sorting ◽  
Sorting Test ◽  
Set Shifting Task

Adolescence is a developmental period crucial for the maturation of higher-order cognitive functions. Indeed, adolescence deficits in executive functions are strong predictors of increased vulnerability to several mental disabilities later in life. Here, we tested adolescent mice in a fully-automated attentional set-shifting task equivalent to the humans’ Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery Intra-/Extra-Dimensional set-shift task (ID/ED). Compared to an adult, adolescent mice required more time to complete the task (≈16 days), and a higher percentage failed to finish the entire task. Nevertheless, adolescent mice completing this demanding task showed an increased effort in solving the extradimensional shift stage (EDS) compared to previous stages. Moreover, we found that this paradigm can be used to detect early cognitive dysfunctions in adolescent genetically modified mice. Thus, this automatic paradigm provides a further tool to assess attentional control in adolescent mice, and the development of dysfunctional executive functions from adolescence to adulthood.

Impaired Perception of Unintentional Transgression of Social Norms after Prefrontal Cortex Damage: Relationship to Decision Making, Emotion Recognition, and Executive Functions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riadh Ouerchefani ◽  
Naoufel Ouerchefani ◽  
Mohamed Riadh Ben Rejeb ◽  
Didier Le Gall
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Gambling Task ◽  
Basic Emotions

Abstract Objective Patients with prefrontal cortex damage often transgress social rules and show lower accuracy in identifying and explaining inappropriate social behavior. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between the ability to perceive other unintentional transgressions of social norms and both decision making and emotion recognition as these abilities are critical for appropriate social behavior. Method We examined a group of patients with focal prefrontal cortex damage (N = 28) and a group of matched control participants (N = 28) for their abilities to detect unintentional transgression of social norms using the “Faux-Pas” task of theory of mind, to make advantageous decisions on the Iowa gambling task, and to recognize basic emotions on the Ekman facial affect test. Results The group of patients with frontal lobe damage was impaired in all of these tasks compared with control participants. Moreover, all the “Faux-Pas”, Iowa gambling, and emotion recognition tasks were significantly associated and predicted by executive measures of inhibition, flexibility, or planning. However, only measures from the Iowa gambling task were associated and predicted performance on the “Faux-Pas” task. These tasks were not associated with performance in recognition of basic emotions. These findings suggest that theory of mind, executive functions, and decision-making abilities act in an interdependent way for appropriate social behavior. However, theory of mind and emotion recognition seem to have distinct but additive effects upon social behavior. Results from VLSM analysis also corroborate these data by showing a partially overlapped prefrontal circuitry underlying these cognitive domains.

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