Processing of pictorial food stimuli in patients with eating disorders--a systematic review.
OBJECTIVE
The processing of food cues in eating-disordered patients has recently been increasingly investigated. Outlined is current evidence from pictorial food stimuli studies.


METHODS
PubMed and PsychINFO were searched for quantitative pictorial food stimuli studies investigating healthy controls and expert-diagnosed eating-disordered patients.


RESULTS
Patients with eating disorders (ED) demonstrated cue reactivity to food stimuli. Results from functional imaging suggest sensory disengagement and higher emotional involvement while self-reported data and facial EMG revealed that food pictures were perceived as less pleasurable. Different experimental paradigms have demonstrated an attentional bias for food cues in ED. Currently, psychophysiological data is widely inconclusive.


CONCLUSIONS
Evidence suggests cue reactivity to food pictures in eating-disordered patients. However, the overall picture is inconclusive because methodological problems and the integration of findings from different experimental approaches pose a challenge to the research field.
Giel
Katrin Elisabeth
KE
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Medical University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen 72076, Germany. katrin.giel@med.uni-tuebingen.de
Teufel
Martin
M
Friederich
Hans-Christoph
HC
Hautzinger
Martin
M
Enck
Paul
P
Zipfel
Stephan
S
D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005502:Food; D006801:Humans; D010775:Photic Stimulation