The study of individual differences in emotional responding can provide considerable insight into interpersonal dynamics and the etiology of psychopathology. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is emerging as an objective measure of regulated emotional responding (generating emotional responses of appropriate timing and magnitude). This review provides a theoretical and empirical rationale for the use of HRV as an index of individual differences in regulated emotional responding. Two major theoretical frameworks that articulate the role of HRV in emotional responding are presented, and relevant empirical literature is reviewed. The case is made that HRV is an accessible research tool that can increase the understanding of emotion in social and psychopathological processes.

Background Lower household income has been consistently associated with poorer diet quality. Household food purchases may be an important intervention target to improve diet quality among low income populations. Associations between household income and the diet quality of household food purchases were examined. Methods Food purchase receipt data were collected for 14 days from 202 urban households participating in a study about food shopping. Purchase data were analyzed using NDS-R software and scored using the Healthy Eating Index 2010 (HEI 2010). HEI total and subscores, and proportion of grocery dollars spent on food categories (e.g. fruits, vegetables, sugar sweetened beverages) were examined by household income-to-poverty ratio. Results Compared to lower income households, after adjusting for education, marital status and race, higher income households had significantly higher HEI total scores (mean [sd] = 68.2 [13.3] versus 51.6 [13.9], respectively, adjusted p = 0.05), higher total vegetable scores (mean [sd] = 3.6 [1.4] versus 2.3 [1.6], respectively, adjusted p < .01), higher dairy scores (mean [sd] = 5.6 [3.0] versus 5.0 [3.3], p = .05) and lower proportion of grocery dollars spent on frozen desserts (1% [.02] versus 3% [.07], respectively, p = .02). Conclusions Lower income households purchase less healthful foods compared with higher income households. Food purchasing patterns may mediate income differences in dietary intake quality. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02073643.

In the United States, racial/ethnic minority, rural, and low-income populations continue to experience suboptimal access to and quality of health care despite decades of recognition of health disparities and policy mandates to eliminate them. Many health care interventions that were designed to achieve health equity fall short because of gaps in knowledge and translation. We discuss these gaps and highlight innovative interventions that help address them, focusing on cardiovascular disease and cancer. We also provide recommendations for advancing the field of health equity and informing the implementation and evaluation of policies that target health disparities through improved access to care and quality of care.

Overeating is believed to result when the appetitive motivation to consume palatable food exceeds an individual’s capacity for inhibitory control of eating. This hypothesis was supported in recent studies involving predominantly normal weight women, but has not been tested in obese populations. The current study tested the interaction between food reward sensitivity and inhibitory control in predicting palatable food intake among energy-replete overweight and obese women (N=62). Sensitivity to palatable food reward was measured with the Power of Food Scale. Inhibitory control was assessed with a computerized choice task that captures the tendency to discount large delayed rewards relative to smaller immediate rewards. Participants completed an eating in the absence of hunger protocol in which homeostatic energy needs were eliminated with a bland preload of plain oatmeal, followed by a bogus laboratory taste test of palatable and bland snacks. The interaction between food reward sensitivity and inhibitory control was a significant predictor of palatable food intake in regression analyses controlling for body mass index and the amount of preload consumed. Probing this interaction indicated that higher food reward sensitivity predicted greater palatable food intake at low levels of inhibitory control, but was not associated with intake at high levels of inhibitory control. As expected, no associations were found in a similar regression analysis predicting intake of bland foods. Findings support a neurobehavioral model of eating behavior in which sensitivity to palatable food reward drives overeating only when accompanied by insufficient inhibitory control. Strengthening inhibitory control could enhance weight management programs.

OverviewThe development of effective weight loss interventions requires a thorough understanding of the motivational factors that drive and inhibit the overconsumption of food. Obesity was once believed to result purely from disruptions of homeostatic mechanisms controlling food intake. However, it is increasingly recognized that much of the excess caloric intake in obesity is driven by pleasure or the rewarding properties of readily available palatable food (1,2). It is important to note that the motivation underlying this reward-driven or "hedonic" feeding appears to have a different neurophysiological basis than homeostatic controls over energy balance, though the hedonic and homeostatic systems do interact (3). Recently, a surge of research has linked the appetitive motivation to consume palatable food to activation of the mesolimbic dopaminergic system, a neural pathway also implicated in drug addiction and addictive behaviors such as gambling (4). As a result of these findings, a view of obesity as a "disorder of appetitive motivation" has gained prominence among a growing number of obesity researchers. However, a model of hedonic feeding based purely on appetitive motivation has limitations, including an inability to explain instances of feeding behavior parsimoniously in both dieters and nondieters. The aim of this review is to summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the appetitive model, present the extant literature linking control of hedonic feeding to inhibitory processes localized in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), and delineate a theoretical model in which hedonic feeding is viewed as the product of an interaction between appetitive motivation and inhibitory control. Appetitive motivation in hedonic feedingThe human feeding system leaves room for dessert. Humans will continue to consume palatable food even after energy requirements have been met and homeostatic satiety signals have been engaged. This consumption is clearly not driven by an acute need for calories, and hedonic factors (taste, pleasure, reward) play a large role in this type of feeding. Simply stated, the hedonic feeding model holds that palatable food consumption in the absence of an energy deficit (or the physiological signals associated with energy deficit) is driven by an appetitive motivational state referred to as "hedonic hunger" (2), and not by homeostatic controls over feeding. (For discussion of the role of reward in homeostatic feeding, which may be subjectively associated with escape from hunger rather than the pleasant tastes and textures of palatable food, see ref. (5).) evolutionary pressures for hedonic feedingHedonic feeding has an evolutionary basis. Modern humans preferentially overconsume sweet and high-fat palatable foods (6). Hominids subsisted as hunter-gatherers for the majority of evolutionary history and access to these types of foods (e.g., fruits, animal meat) was presumably limited. Hunting or prolonged foraging would often have been required to obtain sweet and high-fat foods, and it is likely that the ca...