Abstract
Objective: Overeating and obesity are associated with impulsivity. In studies among patients with a substance use disorder, impulsivity was found to be associated with substance-related attentional bias. This study examined whether obesity, impulsivity and food craving are associated with an attentional bias for high-calorie food. Methods: Obese (n = 185, mean BMI = 38.18 +/- 6.17) and matched healthy-weight (n = 134, mean BMI = 22.35 +/- 1.63) men (27.9%) and women (72.1%), aged 18-45 years, took part in the study. Participants were tested on several self-report and behavioral measures of impulsivity (i.e., response inhibition and reward sensitivity) and self-reported trait craving. In addition, they performed a visual search task to measure attentional bias for high-and low-caloric foods. Results: Self-reported impulsivity influenced the relationship between weight status and detection speed of high-and low-caloric food items: High-impulsive participants with obesity were significantly faster than high-impulsive healthy-weight participants in detecting a high-caloric food item among neutral items, whereas no such difference was observed among low-impulsive participants. No significant effects were found on low-caloric food items, for trait craving or any of the behavioral measures of impulsivity. Conclusion: Self-reported impulsivity, but not trait craving or behavioral measures of impulsivity, is associated with an attentional bias for high-caloric foods, but only in people with obesity. It is in particular the speedy detection of high-caloric foods in the environment that characterizes the impulsive person with obesity, which in turn may cause risky eating patterns in a society were high-caloric food is overly present.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 677-685 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Health Psychology |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2015 |
Keywords
- ALCOHOLIC PATIENTS
- ATTENTIONAL BIAS
- CRAVINGS QUESTIONNAIRES
- EATING-DISORDER EXAMINATION
- HEALTHY WOMEN
- INHIBITORY CONTROL
- PERSONALITY
- REWARD
- SCALE
- TRAIT
- attention bias
- food craving
- impulsivity
- obesity
- toxic environment