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King JA, Bernardoni F, Westbrook A, Korb FM, Boehm I, Doose A, Geisler D, Gramatke K, Hellerhoff I, Wolff S, Strobel A, Goschke T, Roessner V, Ehrlich S. Exaggerated frontoparietal control over cognitive effort-based decision-making in young women with anorexia nervosa. Mol Psychiatry 2024:10.1038/s41380-024-02712-4. [PMID: 39198684 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-024-02712-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2023] [Revised: 08/16/2024] [Accepted: 08/21/2024] [Indexed: 09/01/2024]
Abstract
Effortful tasks are generally experienced as costly, but the value of work varies greatly across individuals and populations. While most mental health conditions are characterized by amotivation and effort avoidance, individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) persistently engage in effortful behaviors that most people find unrewarding (food restriction, excessive exercise). Current models of AN differentially attribute such extreme weight-control behavior to altered reward responding and exaggerated cognitive control. In a novel test of these theoretical accounts, we employed an established cognitive effort discounting paradigm in combination with fMRI in young acutely underweight female patients with AN (n = 48) and age-matched healthy controls (HC; n = 48). Contrary to the hypothesis that individuals with AN would experience cognitive effort (operationalized as N-back task performance) as less costly than HC participants, groups did not differ in the subjective value (SV) of discounted rewards or in SV-related activation of brain regions involved in reward valuation. Rather, all group differences in both behavior (superior N-back performance in AN and associated effort ratings) and fMRI activation (increased SV-related frontoparietal activation during decision-making in AN even for easier choices) were more indicative of increased control. These findings suggest that while effort discounting may be relatively intact in AN, effort investment is high both when performing demanding tasks and during effort-based decision-making; highlighting cognitive overcontrol as an important therapeutic target. Future research should establish whether exaggerated control during effort-based decision-making persists after weight-recovery and explore learning the value of effort in AN with tasks involving disorder-relevant effort demands and rewards.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph A King
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Fabio Bernardoni
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Andrew Westbrook
- Department of Psychiatry, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Franziska M Korb
- Chair of General Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Ilka Boehm
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Arne Doose
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Daniel Geisler
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Katrin Gramatke
- Eating Disorder Research and Treatment Center, Dept. of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Inger Hellerhoff
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
- Eating Disorder Research and Treatment Center, Dept. of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Sylvia Wolff
- Department. of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Alexander Strobel
- Chair of Differential and Personality Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Thomas Goschke
- Chair of General Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Veit Roessner
- Department. of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Stefan Ehrlich
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
- Eating Disorder Research and Treatment Center, Dept. of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
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Schroeder PA, Collantoni E, Meregalli V, Rabarbari E, Simonazzi C, Svaldi J, Cardi V. Persistent avoidance of virtual food in anorexia nervosa-restrictive type: Results from motion tracking in a virtual stopping task. Int J Eat Disord 2024; 57:624-634. [PMID: 38263753 DOI: 10.1002/eat.24143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2023] [Revised: 01/05/2024] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 01/25/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Food avoidance is central to patients with anorexia nervosa-restrictive type (AN-R). Competing accounts in experimental psychopathology research suggest that food avoidance may result from automatic, habitual responses or from elevated inhibitory control abilities. This study investigated behavioral trajectories of food avoidance in a novel virtual reality stopping task. METHOD Sixty patients with AN-R and 29 healthy controls with normal weight were investigated using a novel, kinematic task in virtual reality. We recorded spatial displacement in stop- and go-trials to virtual food and control objects. Inhibitory control abilities were operationalized by the VR task in stopping performance (i.e., interrupted movement in stop-trials), whereas we also measured habitual avoidance of virtual food across both go- and stop-trials (i.e., delayed movement relative to nonfood objects). RESULTS In patients with AN-R, hand displacements were shorter to food versus nonfood across stop- and go-trials, reflected in a Stimulus × Group interaction. Healthy controls showed no differences. Importantly, the food-specific effect in AN-R was identical across stop- and go-trials, indicating habitual food avoidance. Moreover, stop error rates (i.e., stop-trials with response) were lower in patients with AN-R. DISCUSSION The findings suggest food-specific habitual avoidance and heightened generalized inhibitory control in AN-R. The continuously delayed displacements during active hand movements across stop- and go-trials indicated the persistence of patients' avoidance of food. PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE Experimental research investigates the mechanisms underlying mental disorders such as anorexia nervosa. In this study, we measured interrupted hand movements in response to food pictures or neutral pictures (shoes) in patients with anorexia nervosa and healthy controls. A virtual reality scenario was used. Findings indicated that patients were slower at approaching food, interrupted or not. Key mechanisms of food avoidance can be translated into habit-based treatment options in future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philipp A Schroeder
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Enrico Collantoni
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Valentina Meregalli
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Elisa Rabarbari
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | | | - Jennifer Svaldi
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Valentina Cardi
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
- King's College London, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, London, UK
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van den Hoek Ostende MM, Neuser MP, Teckentrup V, Svaldi J, Kroemer NB. Can't decide how much to EAT? Effort variability for reward is associated with cognitive restraint. Appetite 2020; 159:105067. [PMID: 33307115 DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2020.105067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2020] [Revised: 11/09/2020] [Accepted: 12/04/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Food intake is inherently variable and often characterized by episodical restraint or overeating (uncontrolled eating). Such heightened variability in intake has been associated with higher variability in the brain response to food reward, but it is an open issue whether comparable associations with elevated variability in reward seeking exist. Here, we assessed whether restraint and uncontrolled eating as markers of trait-like variability in eating are associated with higher intra-individual variability in reward seeking as captured by a cost-benefit paradigm. To test this hypothesis, 81 healthy, overnight-fasting participants (MBMI = 23.0 kg/m2 ± 3.0) completed an effort allocation task (EAT) twice. In the EAT, participants had to exert physical effort to earn monetary and food rewards and indicated levels of wanting through visual analog scales (VAS). As predicted, we found that greater trial-by-trial effort variability was associated with lower scores on cognitive restraint, rp(78) = -0.28, p = .011 (controlled for average effort). In line with previous findings, higher wanting variability was associated with higher BMI, rp(78) = 0.25, p = .026 (controlled for average effort). Collectively, our results support the idea that higher variability in reward seeking is a potential risk factor for eating beyond homeostatic need. Since associations with variability measures of reward exceeded associations with average reward seeking, our findings may indicate that variability in the representation of the reward value could be a crucial aspect driving fluctuations in food intake.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Monja P Neuser
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Calwerstraße 14, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Vanessa Teckentrup
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Calwerstraße 14, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Jennifer Svaldi
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Schleichstraße 4, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Nils B Kroemer
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Calwerstraße 14, 72076, Tübingen, Germany.
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Neuser MP, Kühnel A, Svaldi J, Kroemer NB. Beyond the average: The role of variable reward sensitivity in eating disorders. Physiol Behav 2020; 223:112971. [DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.112971] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2019] [Revised: 04/30/2020] [Accepted: 05/13/2020] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
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Strengthened Default Mode Network Activation During Delay Discounting in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa After Partial Weight Restoration: A Longitudinal fMRI Study. J Clin Med 2020; 9:jcm9040900. [PMID: 32218141 PMCID: PMC7230250 DOI: 10.3390/jcm9040900] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2020] [Revised: 03/17/2020] [Accepted: 03/21/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The capacity of patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) to resist food-based rewards is often assumed to reflect excessive self-control. Previous cross-sectional functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies utilizing the delay discounting (DD) paradigm, an index of impulsivity and self-control, suggested altered neural efficiency of decision-making in acutely underweight patients (acAN) and a relative normalization in long-term, weight-recovered individuals with a history of AN (recAN). The current longitudinal study tested for changes in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation during DD associated with intensive weight restoration treatment. A predominately adolescent cohort of 22 female acAN patients (mean age—15.5 years) performed an established DD paradigm during fMRI at the beginning of hospitalization and again after partial weight restoration (≥12% body mass index (BMI) increase). Analyses investigated longitudinal changes in both reward valuation and executive decision-making processes. Additional exploratory analyses included comparisons with data acquired in aged-matched healthy controls (HC) as well as probes of functional connectivity between empirically identified nodes of the “task-positive” frontoparietal control network (FPN) and “task-negative” default-mode network (DMN). While treatment was not associated with changes in behavioral DD parameters or activation, specific to reward processing, deactivation of the DMN during decision-making was significantly less pronounced following partial weight restoration. Strengthened DMN activation during DD might reflect a relative relaxation of cognitive overcontrol or improved self-referential, decision-making. Together, our findings present further evidence that aberrant decision-making in AN might be remediable by treatment and, therefore, might constitute an acute effect rather than a core trait variable of the disorder.
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