Risk for Eating Disorders Modulates Startle-Responses to Body Words

Abstract

Body image disturbances are core symptoms of eating disorders (EDs). Recent evidence suggests that changes in body image may occur prior to ED onset and are not restricted to in-vivo exposure (e.g. mirror image), but also evident during presentation of abstract cues such as body shape and weight-related words. In the present study startle modulation, heart rate and subjective evaluations were examined during reading of body words and neutral words in 41 student female volunteers screened for risk of EDs. The aim was to determine if responses to body words are attributable to a general negativity bias regardless of ED risk or if activated, ED relevant negative body schemas facilitate priming of defensive responses. Heart rate and word ratings differed between body words and neutral words in the whole female sample, supporting a general processing bias for body weight and shape-related concepts in young women regardless of ED risk. Startle modulation was specifically related to eating disorder symptoms, as was indicated by significant positive correlations with self-reported body dissatisfaction. These results emphasize the relevance of examining body schema representations as a function of ED risk across different levels of responding. Peripheral-physiological measures such as the startle reflex could possibly be used as predictors of females’ risk for developing EDs in the future.

10 years of BAWLing into affective and aesthetic processes in reading: what are the echoes?

“…At the neurofunctional level, Citron et al ( 2014 ) recently reported evidence for this perspective showing greater neural activation within right insular cortex in response to stimuli evoking conflicting approach-withdrawal tendencies (i.e., positive high-arousal and negative low-arousal words; PosHi; NegLo) compared to stimuli evoking congruent approach vs. withdrawal tendencies (i.e., positive low-arousal and negative high-arousal words; PosLo; NegHi). Further supporting evidence comes from ERP studies in favor of the approach-withdrawal assumption and the idea of the emotional and motivational embodiment of words (Herbert and Kissler, 2010 ; Herbert et al, 2012 , 2013 ).…”

“…These studies show that the BAWL is a popular tool for bridging the language—emotion gap in research and that its stimuli are well cross-validated at the three relevant processing levels: experiential (e.g., subjective ratings, self-reports; Võ et al, 2006 ; Schnitzspahn et al, 2012 ), behavioral and psychophysiological (e.g., response times, heart rate, startle reflex, oculo- and pupillometric responses; Kuchinke et al, 2007 ; Võ et al, 2008 ; Bayer et al, 2011 ; Briesemeister et al, 2011a , b ; Herbert et al, 2013 ), and neuronal (fMRI, EEG, fNIRS, and TMS or tDCS; Kuchinke et al, 2005 , 2006 ; Hofmann et al, 2009 ; Conrad et al, 2011 ; Bayer et al, 2012a , b ; Schlochtermeier et al, 2013 ; Tempel et al, 2013 ; Weigand et al, 2013a , b ; Briesemeister et al, 2014a , b ; Gärtner and Bajbouj, 2014 ; Hsu et al, 2014 ; Recio et al, 2014 ), as well as in computational-information technological and cartographic studies (Pak and Paroubek, 2010 ; Garcia Becerra, 2012 ; Hauthal and Burghardt, 2014 ).…”

“…Complementing the “Affective Norms for English Words” (ANEW; Bradley and Lang, 1999 ), the Sussex Affective Word List (SAWL; Citron et al, 2012 ), or the “Affective Norms for German Sentiment Terms” (ANGST; Schmidtke et al, 2014a ), which rely on a dimensional theory of emotion a la Wundt, Lang, or Russell, a recent version of the BAWL, the DENN-BAWL, is also compatible with discrete emotion theories, such as Darwin's or Panksepp's (Briesemeister et al, 2011a , 2014a , b ). Even more recent extensions include a multilingual version of the BAWL containing more than 6000 words allowing comparisons between German, Spanish, English, and French (Schmidtke et al, 2014a ), and preliminary versions for testing children, the kidBAWL, including embodiment ratings (eBAWL), the noun-noun compound/NNC-BAWL, special versions for clinical applications (cBAWL; Gole et al, 2012 ; Kometer et al, 2012 ; Herbert et al, 2013 ; Gärtner and Bajbouj, 2014 ), and one for experiments in neuroaesthetics (bBAWL). As shown in the following sections, the BAWL can be used to estimate the emotion potential of lexical or supralexical units, and is complemented at the sublexical level by the EMOPHON tool, allowing to estimate the affective value of sublexical units (Aryani et al, 2013 ).…”

Bodily Reactions to Emotional Words Referring to Own versus Other People’s Emotions

“…Even though these studies do show that interactions between emotional, mental, and cognitive processing are accompanied by cardiac changes, regarding emotion and language processing, only a few studies have investigated stimulus-driven changes in mean HR during processing of emotional words. The studies available used a mix of spoken or written (synthesized) words, sentences, and stories, in combination with autobiographical imagery, recall, or cognitive instructions ( Vrana et al, 1986 ; Ilves and Surakka, 2012 ), or presented highly selective self-relevant stimulus materials such as threat words or body words to particular samples of individuals at risk for anxiety ( Thayer et al, 2000 ) or eating disorders ( Herbert et al, 2013b ), impeding the generalizability of the results.…”

Startle Reflex and Health

“…When actual food items, rather than pictures of food, are presented, startle can be decreased in their presence (Hawk et al, 2004), unless the participant is told that the food item, though present in the testing room, would not be available for consumption until several hours later (Rejeski et al, 2010). Startle has also been used to investigate emotional reactivity to body image information, both in pictures (Spresser et al, 2012) and in words (Herbert et al, 2013).…”