Neural responses to food stimuli among individuals with eating and weight disorders: a systematic review of event-related potentials

Abstract

A systematic review was conducted to investigate event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to food and non-food stimuli among individuals with eating and weight disorders. Limiting the search to studies that have analysed ERPs relating to motivated attention and inhibitory control, 19 research papers were extracted from a systematic search in PubMed, Ovid, and Web of Science (2000–2018). An enhanced attentional bias towards food over non-food images (as indexed by P3(00) and LPP amplitudes) was evident for all populations. Individuals with binge eating disorder showed an enhanced attentional response to food cues compared to healthy controls. Inhibitory control-related ERP components (N2(00) and P3a) increased during food-specific no-go trials, but did not differentiate overweight from ‘healthy’ weight groups. The N2 amplitude to food pictures were positively correlated with caloric intake and food craving among individuals with obesity and binge eating disorder, respectively, while P3(00) was sensitive to hunger levels among overweight and obese females. The heterogeneity of stimuli/paradigms adopted, component timescales extracted, ERPs analysed, and data presented has challenged this review’s ability to produce a robust synthesis of results. Some recommendations for future research are discussed.

Keywords:

• Eating disorders
• weight disorders
• event-related potential
• eating behaviour
• attentional allocation
• inhibitory control

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The primary search did not involve studies that adopted chocolate stimuli. After an assessment of the literature, it became apparent that studies using chocolate stimuli were not flagged using other search terms such as ‘appetitive cues’ or ‘food cues’. As such, ‘chocolate stimuli’ was included as a specific search term.

2 Stimulus information can be found in Table 2 (Summary of results).