The selective impact of chocolate craving on visuospatial working memory

Negative and positive interpretations of emotionally neutral situations modulate the desire to eat personally craved foods

Emotions play an important role in modulating food craving. Previous studies demonstrated that exposure to negative or positive stimuli can subsequently influence the desire to eat. However, in many daily situations, individuals self-generate their emotions, for example, by interpreting emotionally-neutral situations as positive or negative. So far, no studies have examined if and how positive and negative interpretations of emotionally-neutral situations modulate food craving. In this study, 65 healthy participants were asked to interpret emotionally-neutral images negatively or positively or observe the images naturally. Subsequently, participants rated their state negative/positive affect and their desire to eat their personally craved foods. The results demonstrate a lower desire to eat craved foods after negative interpretations and a higher desire to eat after positive interpretations, compared to an observe-naturally condition. Additionally, the impact of emotional interpretations on the desire to eat was mediated by participants' state negative/positive affect. These findings suggest that self-generated emotion as a result of negative/positive interpretations plays a significant role in modulating food craving. The results highlight the potential of modifying affective interpretations for the treatment of disorders that are characterized by both dysregulated food craving and emotion.

Cognitive Reappraisal Reduces the Influence of Threat on Food Craving

Cognitive reappraisal is perhaps the most researched emotion regulation strategy. It involves reinterpreting emotional content to reduce its impact. While many studies have demonstrated that cognitive reappraisal reduces negative affect, the utility of cognitive reappraisal in buffering against the consequences of negative affect on subsequent behaviors and attitudes is not clear. To address this issue, the present study assessed whether cognitive reappraisal mitigates the influence of immediate threat on food craving. In Experiment 1, 80 women performed a novel combination of a cognitive reappraisal task with a food-rating task. Participants were exposed to threat-provoking or neutral images and were instructed to either reappraise or observe the images. Subsequently, they rated their desire to eat different types of foods. As expected, the desire to eat decreased after exposure to threat-provoking content. However, after reappraising the threat-provoking images, the desire to eat increased relative to when participants merely observed these images. These results were replicated in Experiment 2 (N = 46) which also showed that the effect of reappraisal on the desire to eat was fully mediated by the subjective emotional reactions to the threat-provoking content. These findings show that cognitive reappraisal can modulate links between emotion and food craving by buffering against the consequences of negative affect on basic human processes.

The transdiagnostic role of food craving: An application of substance use models

Food craving is a transdiagnostic process underlying clinically significant disordered eating behaviors and eating disorder diagnoses. However, the lack of literature examining the role of food craving as it relates to the full spectrum of disordered eating behaviors, including restrictive eating and compensatory behaviors, may be due to the traditional definition of food craving as the desire to consume particular foods. Applying motivational models of substance use craving to food craving may help to explain inconsistencies within existing literature. Three motivational models of craving from the substance use literature may be particularly applicable to (1) provide a clear definition of food craving as a motivational process, (2) understand the role of that motivational process as it underlies the full spectrum of disordered eating behavioral patterns, (3) provide insight for the most appropriate ways in which to accurately assess food craving, and (4) establish ways in which food craving may represent a useful motivational process to target in eating disorder treatments. This narrative review describes three models of substance use craving and provides suggestions for utilizing motivational models to understand the transdiagnostic role of food craving as it relates to the full spectrum of disordered eating behaviors in both research and clinical work.

Is craving a risk factor for substance use among treatment-seeking individuals with alcohol and other drugs use disorders? A meta-analytic review

BACKGROUND

It is still unclear whether craving should be considered a key risk factor for substance-use behaviors (SUB) among treatment-seeking individuals with alcohol (AUD) and other drugs use disorders. Therefore, this study aims at clarifying this topic using a meta-analytic approach.

METHODS

Cohen's d was computed as effect size (ES) measure. Heterogeneity of ESs was computed using the Q statistic and I² index. The analyses also evaluated the impact assessment length on ESs. Furthermore, proximal effects of craving on SUB were compared to distal ones. The diagnoses of specific substance use disorders (SUDs), together with assessment instruments and research design were considered as additional moderators.

RESULTS

Thirty-six independent studies were included for a total of 4868 treatment-seeking individuals with SUDs. Patients who used substances showed slightly higher levels of craving than abstinent ones. The heterogeneity of results was large and significant. The length of period of assessment was positively related to ESs. The analyses highlighted no differences between pooled ESs of proximal and distal impacts of craving on SUB. The diagnoses of SUDs were significant moderators. Considering AUD, assessment instruments and research design were additional moderators.

CONCLUSIONS

Craving is a modest time-dependent proximal and distal risk factor for SUB among individuals with SUDs. Both the frequency of craving episodes and a heightened reactivity to craving cues are largely associated to SUB among individuals with AUD. Future studies should evaluate the mediating and moderating roles of self-regulatory mechanisms on the relationship between craving and SUB.

Effects of working memory on naturally occurring cravings

Elaborated Intrusion (EI) theory posits a key role for visuospatial working memory (WM) in craving. In line with the predictions of EI theory, several studies have found that WM and craving show mutually interfering effects - for example, performance of visuospatial WM tasks has been found to attenuate naturally occurring cravings. However, the extent to which these effects are driven specifically by visuospatial processing remains unclear. We conducted two experiments to investigate the effects of WM on naturally occurring cravings in more detail. In experiment 1, we examined whether such effects are driven specifically by visuospatial WM processes or can also be induced by a verbal WM task. Subjective craving ratings were attenuated equally by performance of visuospatial and verbal WM tasks, suggesting that craving is not dependent specifically on visuospatial processing. In experiment 2, we examined whether effects of visuospatial WM on craving could be driven by simple distraction. Naturally occurring cravings were attenuated in a control condition with minimal WM demands (watching a video). However, the magnitude of attenuation was significantly greater in a visuospatial WM condition. Taken together, these findings highlight a key role for WM in the attenuation of naturally occurring craving, but do not support the hypothesis that such effects are dependent specifically on visuospatial processing.

Mental imagery in psychiatry: conceptual & clinical implications

Mental imagery refers to the experience of perception in the absence of external sensory input. Deficits in the ability to generate mental imagery or to distinguish it from actual sensory perception are linked to neurocognitive conditions such as dementia and schizophrenia, respectively. However, the importance of mental imagery to psychiatry extends beyond neurocognitive impairment. Mental imagery has a stronger link to emotion than verbal-linguistic cognition, serving to maintain and amplify emotional states, with downstream impacts on motivation and behavior. As a result, anomalies in the occurrence of emotion-laden mental imagery has transdiagnostic significance for emotion, motivation, and behavioral dysfunction across mental disorders. This review aims to demonstrate the conceptual and clinical significance of mental imagery in psychiatry through examples of mood and anxiety disorders, self-harm and suicidality, and addiction. We contend that focusing on mental imagery assessment in research and clinical practice can increase our understanding of the cognitive basis of psychopathology in mental disorders, with the potential to drive the development of algorithms to aid treatment decision-making and inform transdiagnostic treatment innovation.

Why Is Working Memory Performance Unstable? A Review of 21 Factors

In this paper, we systematically reviewed twenty-one factors that have been shown to either vary with or influence performance on working memory (WM) tasks. Specifically, we review previous work on the influence of intelligence, gender, age, personality, mental illnesses/medical conditions, dieting, craving, stress/anxiety, emotion/motivation, stereotype threat, temperature, mindfulness training, practice, bilingualism, musical training, altitude/hypoxia, sleep, exercise, diet, psychoactive substances, and brain stimulation on WM performance. In addition to a review of the literature, we suggest several frameworks for classifying these factors, identify shared mechanisms between several variables, and suggest areas requiring further investigation. This review critically examines the breadth of research investigating WM while synthesizing the results across related subfields in psychology.

Dieting and Food Cue-Related Working Memory Performance

Executive functioning (e.g., working memory) is tightly intertwined with self-regulation. For example, food cue-elicited craving has been found to impair working memory performance. Furthermore, current dieters have been found to show lower working memory performance than non-dieters. Recent research, however, suggests that it is crucial to consider dieting success in addition to current dieting status or restrained eating in order to reveal cognitive mechanisms that are associated with successful eating-related self-regulation. The current study investigated food cue-related working memory performance as a function of dieting status and dieting success in female students. Participants performed an n-back task with pictures of food and neutral objects. Reaction time in response to food pictures was slower than in response to neutral pictures, whereas omission errors did not differ between picture types. Current food craving was increased after performing the food block, but not after the neutral block. There was an indirect effect of current dieting status on higher food craving after the food block, which was mediated by slower reaction time to food vs. neutral pictures. Furthermore, higher dieting success was associated with fewer omission errors in the food vs. neutral block in current dieters. There were no relationships of restrained eating with current food craving and task performance. Results further highlight the need to differentiate between successful and unsuccessful dieting in addition to current dieting status or restrained eating when examining possible mechanisms of overeating or successful restraint. Although palatable food cues induce food craving regardless of dieting success, they may boost executive functioning in successful dieters, which helps them to overcome these temptations.

Modification of EEG functional connectivity and EEG power spectra in overweight and obese patients with food addiction: An eLORETA study

We evaluated the modifications of electroencephalographic (EEG) power spectra and EEG connectivity in overweight and obese patients with elevated food addiction (FA) symptoms. Fourteen overweight and obese patients (3 men and 11 women) with three or more FA symptoms and fourteen overweight and obese patients (3 men and 11 women) with two or less FA symptoms were included in the study. EEG was recorded during three different conditions: 1) five minutes resting state (RS), 2) five minutes resting state after a single taste of a chocolate milkshake (ML-RS), and 3) five minutes resting state after a single taste of control neutral solution (N-RS). EEG analyses were conducted by means of the exact Low Resolution Electric Tomography software (eLORETA). Significant modification was observed only in the ML-RS condition. Compared to controls, patients with three or more FA symptoms showed an increase of delta power in the right middle frontal gyrus (Brodmann Area [BA] 8) and in the right precentral gyrus (BA 9), and theta power in the right insula (BA 13) and in the right inferior frontal gyrus (BA 47). Furthermore, compared to controls, patients with three or more FA symptoms showed an increase of functional connectivity in fronto-parietal areas in both the theta and alpha band. The increase of functional connectivity was also positively associated with the number of FA symptoms. Taken together, our results show that FA has similar neurophysiological correlates of other forms of substance-related and addictive disorders suggesting similar psychopathological mechanisms.

Anxiety sensitivity and working memory capacity: Risk factors and targets for health behavior promotion

Understanding the nature and influence of specific risk profiles is increasingly important for health behavior promotion. The purpose of this article is to document the value of two factors-anxiety sensitivity (AS) and working memory capacity (WMC)-for enhancing risk for the initiation and/or maintenance of a range of negative health behaviors. AS is a distress-related risk factor that potentiates avoidance/coping motivations for negative health behaviors. Stress provides the conditions for negative somatic and affective states, and AS amplifies the aversiveness of these experiences and correspondingly hinders adaptive functioning. In contrast, low WMC is hypothesized to exert its effect by decreasing the capacity to filter out current temptations, attenuating a focus on longer-term goals and impairing the application of relevant coping skills at times of stress. In this review, we provide conceptual models for the separate roles of high AS and low WMC in negative health behaviors, review the influence of these factors on specific health behavior exemplars (eating behaviors/obesity, physical activity, smoking, alcohol use, and sleep promotion), provide preliminary evidence for their value as independent treatment targets for health-behavior promotion, and encourage specific research directions in relation to these variables.

The Elaborated Intrusion Theory of desire: a 10-year retrospective and implications for addiction treatments

INTRODUCTION

Ten years after the publication of Elaborated Intrusion (EI) Theory, there is now substantial research into its key predictions. The distinction between intrusive thoughts, which are driven by automatic processes, and their elaboration, involving controlled processing, is well established. Desires for both addictive substances and other desired targets are typically marked by imagery, especially when they are intense. Attention training strategies such as body scanning reduce intrusive thoughts, while concurrent tasks that introduce competing sensory information interfere with elaboration, especially if they compete for the same limited-capacity working memory resources.

CONCLUSION

EI Theory has spawned new assessment instruments that are performing strongly and offer the ability to more clearly delineate craving from correlated processes. It has also inspired new approaches to treatment. In particular, training people to use vivid sensory imagery for functional goals holds promise as an intervention for substance misuse, since it is likely to both sustain motivation and moderate craving.

Mental imagery interventions reduce subsequent food intake only when self-regulatory resources are available

Research has shown that imagining food consumption leads to food-specific habituation effects. In the present research, we replicated these effects and further examined whether the depletion of self-regulatory resources would reduce the habituation effects of imagined food consumption. Since self-regulatory resources have been shown to reduce habituation effects during the perception of emotional stimuli, we expected a reduction in habituation effects from imagined food consumption when self-regulatory resources were depleted. In Study 1, we replicated habituation effects as a response to imagining gummy bear consumption with a high (36) and medium number (18) of repetitions in a camouflaged taste test. Participants imagining gummy bear intake showed decreased food intake compared with participants who imagined putting a coin into a laundry machine. The number of repetitions did not significantly moderate the observed habituation effect. In Study 2, we investigated whether self-regulatory depletion would impede habituation effects evoked by the imagination of walnut consumption. Participants in a depleted state did not show a reduction in food intake after imagining walnut intake compared with participants in a non-depleted state. We discuss directions for future research and processes that might underlie the observed moderating effect of self-regulatory resources.

Using virtual reality to study food cravings

Food cravings (FCs) are associated with overeating and obesity and are triggered by environmental cues. The study of FCs is challenged by difficulty replicating the natural environment in a laboratory. Virtual reality (VR) could be used to deliver naturalistic cues in a laboratory. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether food related cues delivered by VR could induce greater FCs than neutral VR cues, photographic food cues, or real food. Sixty normal weight non-dieting women were recruited; and, to prevent a floor effect, half were primed with a monotonous diet (MD). Experimental procedures involved delivering neutral cues via VR and food related cues via VR, photographs, and real food in counterbalanced order while measuring subjective (self-report) and objective (salivation) FCs. FCs produced by VR were marginally greater than a neutral cue, not significantly different from picture cues, and significantly less than real food. The modest effects may have been due to quality of the VR system and/or measures of FC (i.e., self-report and salivation). FC threshold among non-dieting normal weight women was lowered with the use of a MD condition. Weight loss programs with monotonous diets may inadvertently increase FCs making diet compliance more difficult.

Bibliotherapy and food cravings control

The use of self-help manuals or bibliotherapy could be an effective resource to treat obesity, but their effects on the elaborative processes of food cravings remain unclear. The present study examined whether bibliotherapy can effectively reduce food cravings in an overweight and obese adult population. 80 participants were randomly allocated either to the Self-help Manual group or the Intention-control group. They had to apply each resource over a period of 3 months whenever they felt a craving arise. During the baseline period most of the participants reported grazing as the main cause of their weight gain. Compared to baseline, the results of the third month of the follow-up revealed that intentions had paradoxical effects on food thought suppression, preoccupation with food, negative affect and guilty feelings; but the Self-help Manual promoted positive changes on the food cravings trait and its dimensions, food thoughts suppression, emotional and behavioural reactions to intrusions and BMI. These findings suggest that the Self-help Manual could be useful in reducing food cravings.

Specificity of the failure to inhibit responses in overweight children

Poor response inhibition has been associated with obesity, excessive food intake, and other consumptive behaviours, including alcohol use. However, the correlation between obesity and addictive behaviours like alcoholism is low: people who are obese appear to have a specific problem in restraining food intake. This would imply that obese people have more difficulties in inhibiting responses towards food, compared to other rewarding stimuli. In the present study 89 children (ages 7-9) were tested with the stop signal task, in which responses towards food pictures or toy pictures had to be inhibited. Results showed that children were less effective in inhibiting responses towards food and percentage overweight predicted a lower ability to inhibit responses in general. When dichotomizing the sample in overweight and lean children, it appeared that overweight children were specifically less effective in inhibition towards food cues, compared to lean children.

IN CONCLUSION

The results confirm weight related inhibitory problems and might explain the increased overeating to food cues in overweight children, as reported in the literature.