Emotion and Psychophysiological Responses During Emotion–Eliciting Film Clips in an Eating Disorders Sample

Abstract

Background: Greater vulnerability to negative emotions appears associated with the development and maintenance of eating disorders (EDs). A systematic review of psychophysiological studies using emotion-eliciting film clips reveals that there are no studies examining the effect of standardized validated film clips on psychophysiological response across a range of EDs.Methods: Using standardized validated film clips without ED-specific content, the present study examined self-reported emotions and psychophysiological responses of women with Binge-Eating Disorder (BED; n = 57), Anorexia Nervosa (AN; n = 16), Bulimia Nervosa (BN; n = 34), and Healthy Controls (HCs; n = 26) at Baseline, during Neutral, Sad, Happy, and Fear-inducing film clips, and at Recovery.Results: Throughout the protocol, the ED groups reported significantly greater sadness and anxiety than HCs. Additionally, the AN group reported more fear, the BED group more frustration, and the BED and BN groups more tension than HCs. Compared to HCs, the BED group reported stronger urges to binge throughout the protocol, whereas BN group reported stronger urges to binge relative to the HC group only at Baseline and Recovery. The BN and BED groups experienced decreased urges to binge during all film clips compared to Baseline. Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia levels were significantly lower in the BED group compared to HCs and the BN group throughout the protocol.Discussion: Standardized validated film clips can be used to elicit expected self-reported emotion and skin conductance responses in ED groups, although individuals with EDs compared HCs report greater negative emotions. Interestingly, film clips appeared to reduce urges to binge in binge-eating groups.

Heart Rate as a Correlate for the Emotional Processing of Body Stimuli in Anorexia Nervosa

“…Exposure toward their own bodies in a mirror did not elicit specific physiological reactions on a skin conductance level but more negative ratings on a subjective evaluation level in AN patients compared to healthy adolescents. It is therefore assumed that—possibly due to the insufficient integration of signals from the body and emotional experience—physiological phenomena and subjective experience are not always in line regarding situations that could be perceived as particularly “threatening”, such as emotional contexts in general [ 13 ], confrontation with one’s own body [ 18 ], body silhouettes [ 20 ] or—in our study—extremely overweight body shapes, for example. Contrary to our findings, studies using approach–avoidance paradigms could not—in spite of differences in the subjective ratings of stimuli—detect biased approach–avoidance reactions to thin and normal weight bodies in eating disorder vs. control participants [ 34 , 35 ] unless the bodies were depicted as the participants‘ own bodies.…”

“…The aforementioned study in BN patients, however, could not detect differential reactions toward body as opposed to food stimuli in individuals with BN following a negative mood induction [ 10 ]. Other studies also suggest blunted psychophysiological responses to emotional content in AN, e.g., attenuated startle reflex reactivity to fear-inducing material [ 17 ], but similar peripheral physiological responses to emotion-eliciting film clips as in healthy women [ 18 ]. Adolescent AN patients who performed a body-related task (mirror exposure) showed a dissociation between psychophysiological reactivity (no differences in skin conductance responses compared to typical developing girls) and subjective responses (more negative emotion ratings) [ 19 ].…”