Unwanted imaginations of future fears can, to some extent, be avoided. This is achieved by control mechanisms similar to those engaged to intentionally forget unwanted memories. Intentional forgetting relies on the executive control network, whose functioning is impaired after exposure to acute stress. This study investigates whether acute stress affects the ability to intentionally control future fears and, furthermore, whether individual differences in executive control predict a susceptibility to these effects. The study ran over two consecutive days. On day 1, the working memory capacity of one hundred participants was assessed. Thereafter, participants provided descriptions and details of fearful episodes that they imagined might happen in their future. On day 2, participants were exposed to either the stress or no-stress version of the Maastricht Acute Stress Test, after which participants performed the Imagine/No-Imagine task. Here, participants repeatedly imagined some future fears and suppressed imaginings of others. Results demonstrated that, in unstressed participants, suppression successfully induced forgetting of the episodes’ details compared to a baseline condition. However, the observed reduction in anxiety toward these events remained unchanged. Acute stress was found to selectively impair intentional forgetting and, further, this effect was moderated by working memory capacity. Specifically, low working memory predicted a susceptibility to these detrimental effects. These findings provide novel insights into conditions under which our capacity to actively control future fears is reduced, which may have considerable implications for understanding stress-related psychopathologies and symptomatologies characterized by unwanted apprehensive thoughts.

Binging disorders are characterized by episodes of eating large amounts of food whilst experiencing a loss of control. Recent studies suggest that the underlying causes of these binging disorders consist of a complex system of environmental cues, different processing of food stimuli, altered behavioral responding, and brain changes. We propose that task-independent volumetric and connectivity changes in the brain are highly related to altered functioning in reward sensitivity, cognitive control, and negative affect, which in turn promotes and conserves binging behavior. We here review imaging studies and show that volume and connectivity changes in the orbitofrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, medial prefrontal cortex, striatum, insula and amygdala overlap with distorted brain activation associated with increased reward sensitivity, decreased cognitive control, and distorted responses to negative affect or stress seen in binging disorder. Future research integrating both task-based and task-independent neuroimaging approaches therefore shows considerable promise in clarifying binging behavior. We provide suggestions for how this integration may guide future research and inform novel brain-based treatment options in binging disorders.