Executive Functioning in Obesity, Food Addiction, and Binge-Eating Disorder

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate food addiction (FA) and binge-eating disorder (BED) in their association to executive dysfunctions in adults with obesity. Data on response inhibition, attention, decision-making, and impulsivity were derived from four groups of adults with obesity: obesity and FA (n = 23), obesity and BED (n = 19), obesity and FA plus BED (FA/BED, n = 23), and a body mass index-, age-, and sex-stratified control group of otherwise healthy individuals with obesity (n = 23, OB), using established computerized neuropsychological tasks. Overall, there were few group differences in neuropsychological profiles. Individuals of the FA group did not differ from the OB group regarding executive functioning. Individuals with BED presented with significantly higher variability in their reaction times and a deficient processing of feedback for performance improvement compared to individuals of the OB group. Strikingly, individuals with FA/BED did not present neuropsychological impairments, but higher levels of depression than all other groups. The results indicated the presence of a BED-specific neuropsychological profile in the obesity spectrum. The additional trait FA was not related to altered executive functioning compared to the OB or BED groups. Future research is needed to discriminate FA and BED further using food-specific tasks.

Longer Cortical Silent Period Length Is Associated to Binge Eating Disorder: An Exploratory Study

“…Contrary to our hypothesis, we have not found inhibitory control deficits in response to high-calorie foods in the Go/No-go task among the groups. Obesity and BED partake a disruption in the executive function related to impulsivity, which is not entirely supported by previous research ( 59 ). A neuroimaging study found reduced activation in the prefrontal cortex (inferior frontal gyrus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) during an inhibitory control task in obese participants compared to the control task on lean participants and there were no differences in inhibitory control performance task ( 5 , 60 ), suggesting that obese individuals might have difficulty in maintaining inhibitory control, rather than a general impairment, and the maintenance also depends on external factors like motivation state ( 61 ).…”

Scrutinizing Domains of Executive Function in Binge Eating Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Hege et al (46) concluded individuals with BED showed worse performance than obese controls. The other three studies did not find any evidence of altered performance in individuals with BED compared to obese (31,36,47) or normal weight controls (36,47).…”

“…Four studies using different Go/No-Go paradigms reported mixed findings (31,36,46,47). Hege et al (46) concluded individuals with BED showed worse performance than obese controls.…”

“…Seven studies (n = 649) were included in a meta-analysis examining decision-making based on the net score in the Game of Dice Task (GDT) (15,23), the Iowa Gambling Test (IGT) (14,29,31,32) and the Door Opening task (35). No significant difference between individuals with BED and obese controls was found (SMD = −0.08; 95% IC: −0.29, 0.13; p = 0.467).…”

“…Four studies (n = 287) were included in a meta-analysis examining cognitive flexibility based on perseverative errors (5,12,31,36). Groups did not significantly differ on this measure (SMD = 0.10; 95% IC: −0.32, 0.51, p = 0.642).…”