The effects of response inhibition training following binge memory retrieval in young adults binge eaters: a randomised-controlled experimental study

Abstract

Binge eating is increasingly prevalent among adolescents and young adults and can have a lasting harmful impact on mental and physical health. Mechanistic insights suggest that aberrant reward-learning and biased cognitive processing may be involved in the aetiology of binge eating. We therefore investigated whether recently developed approaches to catalyse brief interventions by putatively updating maladaptive memory could also boost the effects of cognitive bias modification training on binge eating behaviour. A non-treatment-seeking sample of 90 binge eating young adults were evenly randomised to undergo either selective food response inhibition training, or sham training following binge memory reactivation. A third group received training without binge memory reactivation. Laboratory measures of reactivity and biased responses to food cues were assessed pre-post intervention and bingeing behaviour and disordered eating assessed up to 9 months post-intervention. The protocol was pre-registered at https://osf.io/82c4r/. We found limited evidence of premorbid biased processing in lab-assessed measures of cognitive biases to self-selected images of typical binge foods. Accordingly, there was little evidence of CBM reducing these biases and this was not boosted by prior ‘reactivation’ of binge food reward memories. No group differences were observed on long-term bingeing behaviour, caloric consumption or disordered eating symptomatology. These findings align with recent studies showing limited impact of selective inhibition training on binge eating and do not permit conclusions regarding the utility of retrieval-dependent memory ‘update’ mechanisms as a treatment catalyst for response inhibition training.

Adding executive function training to cognitive behavioral therapy for binge eating disorder: A pilot randomized controlled trial

“…Several research groups have utilized computerized cognitive training to address EF to reduce binge eating and eating disorder pathology ( Boutelle et al, 2016 ; Brockmeyer et al, 2019 ; Chami et al, 2022 ; Das et al, 2022 ; Giel et al, 2017 ; Turton et al, 2018 ). These interventions often use a repetitive task (e.g., Go/NoGo, dot-probe) to increase inhibition toward food cues or direct attention away from food cues.…”

“…Several studies showed promising preliminary effects at reducing binge eating ( Boutelle et al, 2016 ; Brockmeyer et al, 2019 ; Chami et al, 2022 ; Giel et al, 2017 ), although sample sizes were small and maintenance effects were not durable. Despite these positive studies, others have failed to show any effect ( Das et al, 2022 ; Turton et al, 2018 ). Computerized training programs have been criticized for their lack of generalizability to real-world behavior outside of a laboratory.…”