Eat your troubles away: electrocortical and experiential correlates of food image processing are related to emotional eating style and emotional state

Biol Psychol. 2014 Feb:96:94-101. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.12.007. Epub 2013 Dec 18.

Abstract

Emotional eating, a trait-like style of food intake in response to negative emotion states, represents an important aspect of overeating and eating related psychopathology. The mechanisms of emotional eating both on experiential and neuronal levels are not well delineated. We recorded event related potentials (ERPs) while individuals with high or low emotional eating style (HEE, n=25; LEE, n=20) viewed and rated pictures of high-caloric food during neutral state vs. negative idiosyncratic emotion induction. Craving ratings increased in HEE and decreased in LEE during negative relative to neutral states. ERPs to food pictures showed an enhanced late positive potential (LPP) over parieto-occipital regions for HEE compared to LEE. Emotional state modulated food picture evoked ERPs over right frontal regions in HEE only. This suggests that appetitive food processing is susceptible to both concurrent emotion and habitual eating style which is of relevance for overeating in healthy and abnormal eating.

Keywords: Binge eating; ERP; Eating behavior; Emotion regulation; Emotional eating; LPP.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Brain Mapping
  • Cerebral Cortex / physiopathology*
  • Electroencephalography
  • Emotions / physiology*
  • Evoked Potentials / physiology*
  • Feeding Behavior / physiology*
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders* / pathology
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders* / psychology
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders* / therapy
  • Female
  • Food Deprivation
  • Food*
  • Humans
  • Imagery, Psychotherapy / methods*
  • Male
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Self Report
  • Young Adult