The role of attentional bias in obesity and addiction.

Abstract

The proposed theoretical synthesis may account for the contributions of appetitive and aversive motivational processes involved in self-regulatory conflicts to AB, and it yields testable predictions about the conditions under which AB should predict and have a causal influence on future consummatory behavior. This has implications for the prediction and modification of unhealthy behaviors and associated disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record

Food addiction and impaired executive functions in women with obesity

“…OB is a heterogeneous condition, and it could be postulated that patients with food addiction could stand to benefit from interventions targeting these identified neuropsychological deficits. For example, interventions utilizing attentional bias modification to change evaluations of substance‐related cues have thus far provided mixed results, and it would be of interest to examine whether patients with food addiction respond differently to attentional bias modification than those without (Field et al, ). Highly prevalent cognitive behaviour therapy approaches for overeating currently do not favor avoidance or abstinence in the same way as addiction treatments (Wilson, ).…”

Criteria for conceptualizing behavioural addiction should be informed by the underlying behavioural mechanism

“…It is this parameter shift that might manifest on other measures as impulsivity or low mood. Parameter shifts in behavioural mechanisms are known to be related to the amount of visual attention directed towards conditioned rewards [6]. These are seen commonly in substance addictions, and we should expect to see similar abnormal attention in behavioural addictions, but not behaviours with which people have a normal relationship.…”

Visual attention to alcohol cues and responsible drinking statements within alcohol advertisements and public health campaigns: Relationships with drinking intentions and alcohol consumption in the laboratory.

“…In a recent theoretical model, Field et al (2016) argued that attentional bias fluctuates in line with the underlying motivational state, and the bias exerts a causal influence on proximal, but not distal, drinking behavior. On this basis, we suggest that individual differences in attention to different types of visual cues and text statements within alcohol advertising should mediate the influence of those cues/statements on alcohol consumption that occurs soon afterward.…”