Attentional Bias for Reward and Punishment in Overweight and Obesity: The TRAILS Study

Jonker, Nienke C.; Glashouwer, Klaske A.; Ostafin, Brian D.; Hemel-Ruiter, Madelon E. van; Smink, Frédérique R. E.; Hoek, Hans W.; Jong, Peter J. de

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0157573

Cited by 14 publications

(38 citation statements)

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“…Attentional bias to general cues of reward and punishment. The Spatial Orientation Task (SOT [24]), an adaptive reaction time task, was used to measure attention towards cues of general reward and punishment [25,34]. See the Supporting information for a detailed description of the task,.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heightened self-reported punishment sensitivity, but no differential attention to cues signaling punishment or reward in anorexia nervosa

et al. 2020

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This study examined whether adolescents with anorexia nervosa (AN) are more sensitive to punishment and less sensitive to reward than a non-eating disorder comparison group. Both self-report and performance measures were used to index reward and punishment sensitivity. Participants were adolescents with AN (n = 69) and an individually matched comparison group with healthy weight (n = 69). They completed the Behavioral Inhibition Scale/Behavioral Activation Scale and the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire to index self-reported reward and punishment sensitivity, and performed the Spatial Orientation Task to index attention to cues signaling reward and punishment. There was extremely strong evidence (BF 10 > 100), that adolescents with AN reported higher sensitivity to punishment than adolescents without an eating disorder. However, adolescents with AN did not differ from the comparison group on self-reported reward sensitivity, and attention to cues signaling reward or punishment. Adolescents with AN clearly show heightened punishment sensitivity, yet this was not paralleled by a heightened proneness to detect signals of punishment. An important next step would be to examine whether punishment sensitivity is a reliable risk factor for the development or maintenance of AN.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heightened self-reported punishment sensitivity, but no differential attention to cues signaling punishment or reward in anorexia nervosa

et al. 2020

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“…Statistical analyses were run on 96.24% of the data. Consistent with a series of recent studies using RT-based performance measures (e.g., [ 50 , 51 , 52 ]), we decided to use median instead of mean reaction times because this seems the most simple, straightforward, and robust way to deal with outliers without losing too much information. Median scores were computed for the different presentation times and type of trials (valid/invalid), for all stimulus types.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attentional bias for negative, positive, and threat words in current and remitted depression

et al. 2018

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BackgroundThe aim of this study was to improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms in the maintenance of depression. We examined attentional bias (AB) for negative and positive adjectives and general threat words in strictly-defined clinical groups of participants with pure Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) without a history of anxiety disorders (AD), mixed MDD and AD, and remitted participants.MethodWe investigated both stimulus specificity and time course of AB in these groups, adopting a cross-sectional design. Data were drawn from the large scale Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA), from which we selected all participants with pure current MDD without a history of AD (n = 29), all participants with current MDD and co-morbid AD(s) (n = 86), all remitted MDD participants (n = 294), and a comparison group without (a history of) MDD or ADs (n = 474). AB was measured with an Exogenous Cueing Task covering short and long presentation times (500 and 1250 ms) and 4 stimulus types (negative, positive, threat, neutral).ResultsBoth traditional and trial level (dynamic) AB scores failed to show an AB for negative adjectives in participants with MDD or mixed MDD/AD. Specifically for long duration trials (1250 ms), remitted participants showed a larger AB traditional score (albeit the actual score still being negative) than the comparison group. The mixed MDD/AD group showed a higher trial-level AB score away from positive adjectives (1250 ms) than the comparisons. In addition, the mixed MDD/AD group showed higher and more variable trial-level AB scores away from short and towards longer presented general threat words together with a non-significant tendency to show less negative traditional AB scores for threat trials (500 ms) than the comparison group.ConclusionsAll in all, the findings do not corroborate the view that an AB towards negative or away from positive adjectives is critically involved in currently depressed individuals. Yet, the relatively high (less negative) AB score for negative adjectives in remitted individuals points to the possibility that an AB for negative information may be involved as a risk factor in the recurrence of MDD.

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“…However, it is currently controversially debated whether this model developed in the context of addiction applies also to obesity ( 6 , 19 , 20 , 27 – 31 ). Previous studies have shown an abnormal sensitivity to rewards and reward-predicting cues in obese individuals ( 32 – 38 ) but did not test whether this modulates goal-directed behavior. Here, we address this question and investigate whether food-predicting cues differentially influence goal-directed behavior of normal-weight, overweight, and obese individuals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Food-Predicting Stimuli Differentially Influence Eye Movements and Goal-Directed Behavior in Normal-Weight, Overweight, and Obese Individuals

et al. 2017

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Obese individuals have been shown to exhibit abnormal sensitivity to rewards and reward-predicting cues as for example food-associated cues frequently used in advertisements. It has also been shown that food-associated cues can increase goal-directed behavior but it is currently unknown, whether this effect differs between normal-weight, overweight, and obese individuals. Here, we investigate this question by using a Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) task in normal-weight (N = 20), overweight (N = 17), and obese (N = 17) individuals. Furthermore, we applied eye tracking during Pavlovian conditioning to measure the participants’ conditioned response as a proxy of the incentive salience of the predicted reward. Our results show that the goal-directed behavior of overweight individuals was more strongly influenced by food-predicting cues (i.e., stronger PIT effect) than that of normal-weight and obese individuals (p < 0.001). The weight groups were matched for age, gender, education, and parental education. Eye movements during Pavlovian conditioning also differed between weight categories (p < 0.05) and were used to categorize individuals based on their fixation style into “high eye index” versus “low eye index” as well. Our main finding was that the fixation style exhibited a complex interaction with the weight category. Furthermore, we found that normal-weight individuals of the group “high eye index” had higher body mass index within the healthy range than individuals of the group “low eye index” (p < 0.001), but this relationship was not found within in the overweight or obese groups (p > 0.646). Our findings are largely consistent with the incentive sensitization theory predicting that overweight individuals are more susceptible to food-related cues than normal-weight controls. However, this hypersensitivity might be reduced in obese individuals, possibly due to habitual/compulsive overeating or differences in reward valuation.

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Attentional Bias for Reward and Punishment in Overweight and Obesity: The TRAILS Study

Cited by 14 publications

References 40 publications

Heightened self-reported punishment sensitivity, but no differential attention to cues signaling punishment or reward in anorexia nervosa

Heightened self-reported punishment sensitivity, but no differential attention to cues signaling punishment or reward in anorexia nervosa

Attentional bias for negative, positive, and threat words in current and remitted depression

Food-Predicting Stimuli Differentially Influence Eye Movements and Goal-Directed Behavior in Normal-Weight, Overweight, and Obese Individuals

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