Code for: Prone to food in bad mood – Emotion potentiated food cue reactivity in patients with binge eating disorder

Code for: Arend, A.-K., Schnepper, R., Lutz, A., Eichin, K., N., & Blechert, J. (2022). Prone to food in bad mood – Emotion potentiated food cue reactivity in patients with binge eating disorder. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 55(4), 564-569. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23683 Objective - Theories on emotional eating are central to our understanding of etiology, maintenance, and treatment of binge eating. Yet, findings on eating changes under induced negative emotions in binge-eating disorder (BED) are equivocal. Thus, we studied whether food-cue reactivity is potentiated under negative emotions in BED, which would point toward a causal role of emotional eating in this disorder. Methods - Patients with BED (n = 24) and a control group without eating disorders (CG; n = 69) completed a food picture reactivity task after induction of negative versus neutral emotions. Food-cue reactivity (self-reported food pleasantness, desire to eat [DTE], and corrugator supercilii muscle response, electromyogram [EMG]) was measured for low- and high-caloric food pictures. Results - Patients with BED showed emotion-potentiated food-cue reactivity compared to controls: Pleasantness and DTE ratings and EMG response were increased in BED during negative emotions. This was independent of caloric content of the images. Conclusions - Food-cue reactivity in BED was consistent with emotional eating theories and points to a heightened response to all foods regardless of calorie content. The discrepancy of appetitive ratings with the aversive corrugator response points to ambivalent food responses under negative emotions in individuals with BED. Austrian Science Fund. Grant Numbers: W1233-B, Doctoral College “Imaging the Mind”; Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg. Grant Number: 8371546 EMO-EAT; H2020 European Research Council. Grant Number: ERC-StG-2014 639445 NewEat unknown unknown