Female emotional eaters show abnormalities in consummatory and anticipatory food reward: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
OBJECTIVE
To test the hypothesis that emotional eaters show greater neural activation in response to food intake and anticipated food intake than nonemotional eaters and whether these differences are amplified during a negative versus neutral mood state.


METHODS
Female emotional eaters and nonemotional eaters (N = 21) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during receipt and anticipated receipt of chocolate milkshake and a tasteless control solution while in a negative and neutral mood.


RESULTS
Emotional eaters showed greater activation in the parahippocampal gyrus and anterior cingulate (ACC) in response to anticipated receipt of milkshake and greater activation in the pallidum, thalamus, and ACC in response to receipt of milkshake during a negative relative to a neutral mood. In contrast, nonemotional eaters showed decreased activation in reward regions during a negative versus a neutral mood.


CONCLUSIONS
Results suggest that emotional eating is related to increased anticipatory and consummatory food reward, but only during negative mood.
Bohon
Cara
C
Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA. cbohon@uoregon.edu
Stice
Eric
E
Spoor
Sonja
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D004435:Eating / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009434:Neural Pathways; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D020534:Parahippocampal Gyrus / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult