Anita Jansen

Impulsivity in obese women

In our obesogenic environment, self-control might be necessary in order to prevent overeating. Impulsivity is supposed to make it more difficult to resist the temptation to eat too much and can thereby contribute to overweight. In the present study, the hypotheses is tested that obese individuals are more impulsive. Thirty-one obese and 28 lean women, sampled from the normal population, are tested on a behavioural measure and three self-report measures of impulsivity. The obese women appeared more impulsive on the last part of the behavioural task, but not on the self-report measures. Implications of the results are discussed.

A learning model of binge eating: Cue reactivity and cue exposure

In the present article, a learning model of binge eating is presented. It has been hypothesized that, parallel to drug intake, the craving and excessive food intake of binge eaters is cue controlled. Research in support of the model is reviewed and a series of predictions about clinical and non-clinical issues is derived from the model. Amongst other things, the model predicts that binge eating might be successfully treated with cue exposure and response prevention. Practical issues are discussed and preliminary pilot studies on cue exposure for bingers are reviewed.

Overweight children overeat after exposure to food cues

Overweight is becoming more common in children, but we know nearly nothing about the eating behavior of overweight children. Learning theory predicts that overeating follows from learned associations between the smell and taste of palatable food on the one hand and intake on the other hand. It was tested whether overweight children overeat after confrontation to these cues. They indeed failed to regulate food intake after both the exposure to the intense smell of tasty food (without eating it) and after eating a small preload of appetizing food, whereas normal-weight children decreased their intake after both cues. Overweight children are thus more vulnerable to triggers of overeating. Their overeating was not related to psychological factors like mood, body esteem, and a restrained eating style, but it was related to cue-elicited salivation flow. Apart from supporting the cue reactivity model of overeating, the data point to an interesting satiety phenomenon in normal eaters after prolonged and intense smelling palatable food without eating it.

Getting a Grip on Drinking Behavior: Training Working Memory to Reduce Alcohol Abuse

Alcohol abuse disrupts core executive functions, including working memory (WM)—the ability to maintain and manipulate goal-relevant information. When executive functions like WM are weakened, drinking behavior gets out of control and is guided more strongly by automatic impulses. This study investigated whether training WM restores control over drinking behavior. Forty-eight problem drinkers performed WM training tasks or control tasks during 25 sessions over at least 25 days. Before and after training, we measured WM and drinking behavior. Training WM improved WM and reduced alcohol intake for more than 1 month after the training. Further, the indirect effect of training on alcohol use through improved WM was moderated by participants’ levels of automatic impulses: Increased WM reduced alcohol consumption in participants with relatively strong automatic preferences for alcohol. These findings are consistent with the theoretical framework and demonstrate that training WM may be an effective strategy to reduce alcohol use by increasing control over automatic impulses to drink alcohol.

Control yourself or just eat what you like? Weight gain over a year is predicted by an interactive effect of response inhibition and implicit preference for snack foods.

OBJECTIVE Previous research showed a strong relation between response inhibition, overeating and overweight. It was shown that people with ineffective response inhibition are more susceptible to the temptations of palatable food, eat more and are more often overweight or obese. In addition the results of several studies suggest that what needs to be inhibited may be an affect-driven motivation for food. In the present longitudinal study, we therefore investigated the interplay of response inhibition and implicit preferences for snack foods in predicting weight gain. DESIGN In a sample of predominantly normal weight undergraduate female students, implicit preference for food, response inhibition, and body mass index (BMI) were measured. After 1 year, BMI was measured again. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Weight gain of the participants over a 1-year period. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The results strongly confirmed our expectations: participants with strong implicit preferences for snack foods and low inhibitory capacity gained the most weight. These findings imply that ineffective response inhibition may render people vulnerable to excessive or impulsive behavior in general, but that the manifestation thereof is determined by domain-specific preferences or needs.

Resisting temptation: Decreasing alcohol-related affect and drinking behavior by training response inhibition

According to dual-process models, excessive alcohol use emerges when response inhibition ability is insufficient to inhibit automatic impulses to drink alcohol. This study examined whether strengthening response inhibition for alcohol-related cues decreases alcohol intake. Fifty-two heavy drinking students were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: In the beer/no-go condition, participants performed a go/no-go task that consistently paired alcohol-related stimuli with a stopping response, to increase response inhibition for alcohol-related stimuli. In the beer/go condition, in contrast, participants were always required to respond to alcohol-related stimuli during the go/no-go task. Before and after the go/no-go manipulation, we measured weekly alcohol intake and implicit attitudes toward alcohol. In addition, we measured alcohol consumption during a taste test immediately after the go/no-go manipulation. Following the manipulation, participants in the beer/no-go condition demonstrated significantly increased negative implicit attitudes toward alcohol, and a significant reduction in weekly alcohol intake, while participants in the beer/go condition showed a non-significant increase in implicit positive attitudes toward alcohol and a significant increase in weekly alcohol intake. This study demonstrates that repeatedly stopping prepotent responses toward alcohol-related stimuli can be an effective strategy to reduce excessive alcohol use.

Training inhibitory control. A recipe for resisting sweet temptations.

When inhibitory control is lacking, people are more prone to indulge in high calorie food. This research examined whether training to inhibit food-related responses renders one less susceptible to temptations of high calorie food. Trait chocolate lovers were divided into three conditions: participants either consistently inhibited responding to chocolate stimuli (chocolate/no-go condition), consistently responded to chocolate stimuli (chocolate/go condition), or responded to chocolate stimuli only during half the trials (control condition). Chocolate consumption was measured following the manipulation with a taste test. Chocolate consumption did not differ between the control condition and the chocolate/go condition, and increased as a function of dietary restraint in both conditions. In the chocolate/no-go condition, however, chocolate consumption was significantly reduced, and higher levels of dietary restraint were associated with decreased chocolate intake. These findings demonstrate that repeatedly practicing inhibitory control over food-related responses can help people regain control over the consumption of high calorie food.

Selective cognitive processing of drug cues in heroin dependence

Previous studies provide evidence for the selective processing of disorder related stimuli on anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. There exist some preliminary indications that selective processing of drug cues may be involved in drug craving and relapse that deserve further investigation. In order to investigate the role of processing bias in an abnormal motivational system, the attentional bias for drug related stimuli was studied in a heroin dependent population. Heroin dependent participants (n = 21) and control participants (n= 30) performed a supra- and subliminal heroin Stroop task and heroin craving was assessed. Heroin dependent participants showed a considerable attentional bias for supraliminally presented heroin cues. However, there was no evidence for a preattentive bias on the subliminal presented cues. Reaction time on heroin cues was significantly predicted by heroin craving-levels. Results indicate that selective processing may be related to motivational induced states in general. The finding are discussed in the context of selective information processing in general psychopathology and in motivational processes as addiction specifically.

Cephalic phase responses, craving and food intake in normal subjects

Cephalic phase responses (CPRs) are elicited during exposure to food cues. They gear up the body to optimize digestion or they compensate for unwanted changes during a meal. The cue reactivity model of binge eating predicts that CPRs are experienced as craving for food, thereby increasing food intake and playing a role in abnormal eating behaviour. The present experiment was designed to measure CPRs in normal women and to examine its relationship with craving, food intake and restraint. Results show that normal subjects do react to food exposure with changes in heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), salivation, blood pressure, skin conductance and gastric activity. These CPRs presumably gear up the body and presumably do not reflect compensatory responses. Significant correlations between restraint and blood pressure, between blood pressure and craving, and between craving and food intake were also found. These results are in line with the cue reactivity model and suggest that research into physiological CPRs and craving in the field of eating disorders is valuable.

The interaction between impulsivity and a varied food environment: its influence on food intake and overweight.

Objective:The current study tests the influence of two factors, the obesogenic environment and impulsivity, on food intake in primary school children. Our current food environment offers a large variety of cheap and easily available sweet and fatty foods. This obesogenic environment is believed to be a cause of the recent obesity epidemic. Impulsive people are generally less successful at inhibiting prepotent responses and they are reward sensitive. We investigate whether the interaction between an obesogenic environment and an impulsive person leads to overeating.Design:A quasi-experimental 2 (reward sensitive versus not reward sensitive) by 2 (successful response inhibitors versus unsuccessful response inhibitors) by 2 (monotonous versus varied food environment) between-subjects design with caloric intake during a taste test as the main dependent variable. The link between impulsivity and overweight was also examined.Subjects:78 healthy primary school children (age: 8–10 years).Measurements:We measured two aspects of impulsivity: reward sensitivity and deficient response inhibition. Subsequently, one aspect of the obesogenic environment was manipulated; half of the participants received monotonous food during a bogus taste test whereas the other half tasted food that was varied in colour, form, taste and texture.Results:As expected, reward sensitivity interacted with variety. In the monotony group there was no difference in food intake between the less and more reward-sensitive children (183 kcal±23 s.d. versus 180 kcal±21 s.d.). However, in the variety group the more reward-sensitive children ingested significantly more calories than the less reward-sensitive children (237 kcal±30 s.d. versus 141 kcal±19 s.d.). Reward sensitivity was not linked to overweight. Deficient response inhibition did not interact with variety, but it was linked to overweight.Conclusion:It is suggested that reward sensitivity could be a causal mechanism for overeating in an obesogenic environment whereas prepotent response inhibition may be a maintaining factor of the problem of overeating.