Attentional biases for food stimuli in external eaters: Possible mechanism for stress-induced eating?

Newman, Emily; O’Connor, Daryl B.; Conner, Mark

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2008.03.007

Cited by 29 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Under stressful conditions, Pavlovian stimuli associated with highly palatable food automatically attract attention, increasing their chances of being perceived (Newman et al, 2008) and when they are perceived, they trigger amplified motivational bursts for highly palatable food (Peciña et al, 2006;Pool, Brosch et al, 2014a). These motivational bursts are likely to be channeled by the habitual system that predominates under stressful conditions over the goal-directed system (Schwabe & Wolf, 2011b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, several studies have demonstrated that stimuli that are naturally associated with highly palatable food, for instance, pictures or words of highly palatable food, biased attention only if they were perceived in a physiological state of hunger (Giel et al, 2011;Mogg, Bradley, Hyare, & Lee, 1998;Piech, Pastorino, & Zald, 2010;Talmi et al, 2013; for a similar effect of a physiological state of thirst, see Mazzietti, Sellem, & Koenig, 2014). Newman, O'Connor, and Conner (2008) showed that stress has consequences that are similar to that of a physiological state of hunger. More precisely, they showed that external Stress free Stressful Fig.…”

Section: Pavlovian System and Attentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is comfort food really comforting? Mechanisms underlying stress-induced eating

Pool

Delplanque

Coppin

et al. 2015

Food Research International

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Overeating behaviors are nowadays a worldwide issue, and cumulative evidence shows that stress induces excessive pursuit of highly palatable food. However, the role of stress in this phenomenon remains poorly understood. The classic interpretation is that excessive eating is an attempt to reduce the aversive feeling associated with the stress response through the hedonic properties of highly palatable food. In this review, we propose an alternative hypothesis based on theoretical models developed in the framework of reward processing. We review recent literature on animal and human studies suggesting that stress reduces hedonic pleasure during highly palatable food consumption and increases the control that the habitual and Pavlovian systems exert on food-seeking behaviors over the control exerted by the goal-directed system. From this literature, we propose that (a) stress amplifies automatic attentional orienting toward stimuli associated with palatable food (i.e., Pavlovian stimuli), rendering them more likely to be perceived; and (b) once perceived, these stimuli trigger stress-amplified motivational bursts and the control that the habitual system exerts on food-seeking behaviors. We hypothesize that stress-induced eating is driven by habits and Pavlovian motivational bursts, independent of hedonic pleasure or even of the goal of reducing the stress-related aversive state. Thus, if a stressed person encounters an environmental stimulus associated with highly palatable food, this may trigger excessive pursuit of highly palatable food, whether or not the food elicits liking during its consumption.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pavlovian System and Attentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is comfort food really comforting? Mechanisms underlying stress-induced eating

Pool

Delplanque

Coppin

et al. 2015

Food Research International

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…It has been suggested that although attentional bias to food images may be greater in an overweight/obese population (15,28) there may be subgroups of individuals that have greater selective attention to their food-related environment due to particular eating style traits. For example, previous studies have demonstrated enhanced food-related attentional processing in individuals with higher levels of self-reported external eating (6,55,56) and higher levels of restraint (57,58) . External eating is considered as eating in response to food-related stimuli, for example the sight or smell of food regardless of the internal state of hunger or satiety (59,60) .…”

Section: Effects Of Individual Eating Style Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attentional bias to food-related visual cues: is there a role in obesity?

et al. 2014

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The incentive sensitisation model of obesity suggests that modification of the dopaminergic associated reward systems in the brain may result in increased awareness of food-related visual cues present in the current food environment. Having a heightened awareness of these visual food cues may impact on food choices and eating behaviours with those being most aware of or demonstrating greater attention to food-related stimuli potentially being at greater risk of overeating and subsequent weight gain. To date, research related to attentional responses to visual food cues has been both limited and conflicting. Such inconsistent findings may in part be explained by the use of different methodological approaches to measure attentional bias and the impact of other factors such as hunger levels, energy density of visual food cues and individual eating style traits that may influence visual attention to food-related cues outside of weight status alone. This review examines the various methodologies employed to measure attentional bias with a particular focus on the role that attentional processing of food-related visual cues may have in obesity. Based on the findings of this review, it appears that it may be too early to clarify the role visual attention to foodrelated cues may have in obesity. Results however highlight the importance of considering the most appropriate methodology to use when measuring attentional bias and the characteristics of the study populations targeted while interpreting results to date and in designing future studies.Incentive sensitisation: Weight status: Eye tracking: Visual probe: Stroop Prevalence of overweight and obesity has now reached epidemic proportions with more than 1·4 billion adults considered as overweight and of these, over 500 million being obese worldwide (1) . On a fundamental level the cause of obesity is linked to an imbalance of energy intake v. energy expenditure; however, it is now evident that obesity is a multifactorial condition that arises from interactions between genetic and environmental factors (2) . One such factor is the present 'obesogenic' environment that is characterised by a wealth of highly palatable, energy-dense foods (3) . These foods are heavily represented in the visual environment for example, through advertising and it has been suggested that frequent exposure to these forms of food-related cues may impact on eating behaviours and food choices (4)(5)(6) .According to the theory of incentive sensitisation, 'addictive substances' modify reward-related pathways in the brain leading to hypersensitisation of rewardrelated stimuli (7) . This results in increased salience to reward-related stimuli resulting in these stimuli becoming more 'attention grabbing'. It has been proposed that this heightened awareness is the consequence of repeated exposure to a particular stimulus and the association between the stimulus and a rewarding experience, which results in related cues becoming salient. The stimulus related to the rewarding experience may then attract g...

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“…For instance, enhanced attention bias to food stimuli has been reported in external eaters [eg, 41, 42], in successful and unsuccessful dieters (eg, [18, 43]), and in chocolate cravers [19]. Interestingly, some researchers have started to investigate causal or directional relationships between enhanced food responsiveness and weight/eating problems.…”

Section: Attention To Food Characteristic For All Overweight/obese Pementioning

confidence: 99%

Attentional Processing of Food Cues in Overweight and Obese Individuals

2012

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The incentive sensitization model of obesity hypothesizes that obese individuals in the western world have acquired an enhanced attention bias to food cues, because of the overwhelming exposure to food. This article gives an overview of recent studies regarding attention to food and obesity. In general, an interesting approach-avoidance pattern in food-related attention has been found in overweight/obese individuals in a number of studies. However, it should be noted that study results are contradictory. This might be due to methodological issues, such as the choice of attention measurements, possibly tapping different underlying components of information processing. Although attention research is challenging, researchers are encouraged to further explore important issues, such as the exact circumstances in which obese persons demonstrate enhanced attention to food, the directional relationship between food-related attention bias, overeating and weight gain, and the underlying involvement of the reward system. Knowledge on these issues could help improve treatment programs.

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Attentional biases for food stimuli in external eaters: Possible mechanism for stress-induced eating?

Cited by 29 publications

References 21 publications

Is comfort food really comforting? Mechanisms underlying stress-induced eating

Is comfort food really comforting? Mechanisms underlying stress-induced eating

Attentional bias to food-related visual cues: is there a role in obesity?

Attentional Processing of Food Cues in Overweight and Obese Individuals

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